RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (FNS) -- The sales performance of Brazil's second-largest supermarket company, the Pao de Acucar Group, has been boosted by its growing hypermarket operation.
The hypermarket's sales performance will be a major contributor to the expected 33% rise in Pao's gross revenues for the year, to $1.6 billion from nearly $1.3 billion in the prior year, the official said.
Pao's volume includes the operations of its 258 supermarkets. The company has closed 231 of its 463 supermarkets since 1990 and reduced its work force from 45,000 to 18,000, according to the official. The Extra hypermarkets have managed to successfully sell large quantities of products at lower-than-usual profit margins. A major strategy has been to offer promotions that no other supermarket chain has been able to match.
In August, the Extra chain promised not to charge shoppers for branded products they could prove they paid less money for elsewhere during the same time period. In April, one Extra offered shoppers a 15% discount on the price of any branded product a competitor advertised.