This year, the Group marked a milestone in its growth strategy,
materializing the entry to a new market through the acquisition of
Dicico, one of the leading home improvement chains in Brazil that
does business in the state of Sao Paulo. This meant the addition
of 56 stores and 118,000 m2 of sales areas.
In addition, continuing with the organic growth strategy of the
company, in 2013 30 new stores were opened, adding around
160,000 m2 of sales area.
In the case of department stores, seven new stores were opened
in the region. Two were inaugurated in Chile, one located in Mall
Plaza Egaña in Santiago and the other one in Open Plaza Ovalle,
in the region of Coquimbo. In Peru four new stores were opened
in the cities of Lima, Cañete, Ica and Pucallpa. Lastly, a new store
in the city of Bucaramanga was opened in Colombia. These new
openings and the positive same-store sales growth enabled us to
increase department store revenues by 9.9%. Sodimac added 11 new stores in the region, most of them in
Peru, where six new stores were opened in the cities of Cañete,
Huacho, Sullana, Pucallpa and two in Lima. Two stores were
opened in Chile, one in Santa Cruz and the other one in Ovalle,
while three new stores were opened in Colombia in the cities
of Armenia, Rio Negro and Chia. Revenues increased 14.4%
in 2013 because of sales area growth throughout the year,
together with the satisfactory maturity of the stores opened
in previous years.
Lastly, Tottus added 12 new stores to its chain, five in Chile
and seven in Peru. The stores in Chile are located in the cities
of Concepción, Ovalle, Quilpué and Santiago, the latter city
where two new stores were opened. In Peru, the new stores are
located in Lima, Cañete, Chiclayo, Pacasmayo, Arequipa, Sullana
and Pucallpa, in this latter case the first modern supermarket
opened in the jungle zone of Peru. The supermarket division
increased revenues by 15% in the year.
2013 was a year of growth and region-wide consolidation of the
Financial Services business. Sales through the CMR Falabella cards
(Visa, MasterCard and the Falabella card itself) rose heavily in the
period in Chile, Peru, Colombia and Argentina, increasing 12.4%
compared to 2012. This improvement was driven in particular by
sales outside of the Falabella stores, which increased 28.6%. On
a regional basis, it continued to be the leader in issuing credit
cards, with more than 5 million active cards and loans exceeding
US$6 billion, a growth of 4.1% in comparison to the previous year.
Checking and saving accounts of the bank rose at a pace above 20%.
We also added 22 branches, expanding the network in order to be
present where customers need us and accompany the Falabella
Group as it expands in the region. The sales of Seguros Falabella
rose close to 12% compared to the previous year. The good results
in the sales of polices were accompanied by a drop in abandonment,
which also increased stock. Regionally, Viajes Falabella increased
its sales 17% compared to 2012, the highest increases taking place
in Colombia and Argentina.
Mall Plaza and Open Plaza also experienced significant growth,
adding 5 new shopping centers in the region and more than 210,000
m2 of leasable area. Mall Plaza acquired a shopping center in the
city of Iquique and opened Mall Plaza Egaña in Santiago. Together
with the existing shopping centers, this meant that more than 266
million people visited the malls during the year, an increase of 8% when compared to 2012. This flow of people in the region generated
sales of US$5,450 million for operators in 2013, 15% above the
sales for the same period in the previous year. Open Plaza opened
2 new shopping centers in Chile in the year, Open Plaza Ovalle
and Open Plaza Rancagua, in addition to inaugurating Open Plaza
Pucallpa in Peru. It also increased the leasable area of Open Plaza
El Bosque, adding a complete gastronomic offering in addition to
a wide range of stores.
This year was also marked by the addition of a new business, Móvil
Falabella in Chile, a mobile virtual network operator. It offers voice,
messaging, data and other complementary services to customers
through the Entel PCS networks. It was successfully launched in
November, closing the year with more than 60,000 lines. This new
service is sold through the group’s stores and by the end of 2013
there were 120 points of sale throughout the country.
Also notable is growth in the online channel, a fundamental part of
the Group’s omni-channel strategy. For example, the sales of the
online channel of Falabella Chile grew 47% in the year. In 2013 as
well the Group worked on opening the online channel for Sodimac
in Peru, which was launched in January 2014. Tottus Chile relocated
online sales operations to a more strategic location that increased
the available assortment of products and operating capacity, in
addition to on-time delivery indicators.
As a result of all of the foregoing, aggregate sales were CLP 6,659,641
million, a growth of 12.3% in comparison to 2012.
Growth
