At the end of last year Soriana was the second largest self-service chain on the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV), but the loss it has suffered of 8,604 million pesos in market value so far in 2022 caused it to be surpassed by Chedraui, now placing himself in third place.
In the supermarket position table, in terms of capitalization in the BMV, Walmart de México is in the lead, which is worth 1.2 billion pesos; in second place, Chedraui, with a capitalization of 52,842 million pesos; in third, Soriana, which is worth 38,160 million pesos, and in last place, La Comer, with 10,043 million pesos.
At the end of last year, Soriana was worth 46.764 million pesos, while Chedraui’s value on the stock market amounted to 40.889 million pesos.
Industry analysts agreed that Soriana’s fall on the BMV is due to the fact that since last year it lost market share, a trend that continued until the first quarter of 2022.
In the first three months of 2020, Soriana’s participation in the sector’s sales was 16.46%, for the period January-March 2021 it fell to 14.99%, while for the first quarter of 2022 it fell to 14.64 percent.
Chedraui’s share went from 8.69% in January-March 2020 to 9.42% in the first quarter of 2022. The other two self-service chains increased their share between 2020 and 2022, Walmart went from 72.21 to 72.96% and La Comer, which rose from 2.62 to 2.98 percent.
Carlos Hermosillo, an independent analyst, said that factors that dragged down Soriana in the BMV are “the reduction of its sales floor, the perception of pressure on margins and a worse use of working capital against that of its competition”, which caused that “investors prefer to focus on clearer options.”
Jerónimo Cavia, an analyst at Actinver, explained that the rise of Chedraui on the Stock Exchange -which has earned 11,953 million pesos during the year- is due to the growth that the station has had in the United States, after it acquired the chain in May 2021. Smart & Final.
In 2022, Chedraui increased its sales in the United States by 160.1%, entering 36,388 million dollars only in the American Union, which exceeded its sales in Mexico, which amounted to 24,063 million dollars in the period.
In the year, Soriana shares accumulate the worst performance among the four self-service chains, with a drop of 18.40%, to 21.20 pesos each.
Walmex shares carry a loss in 2022 of 8.96%; those of La Comer rose 0.49%, those of Chedraui are the ones that have had the best performance in the year, with an advance of 29.23 percent.
Marisol Huerta, Consumer analyst at Banco Ve por Más (BX+), anticipated that between June and July Soriana could recover part of the ground lost since 2020 with the 100% reactivation of discount strategies in the summer season, in which the company has one of its “most aggressive” sales periods of the year.
Walmex, the most efficient
Soriana lowers sales floor; Comer and Chedraui increase it
With the closure of nine of its stores, the sales area of the Soriana self-service chain had a quarterly decrease of 94,671 square meters (m²) between January and March 2022, while Walmart de México (Walmex), Chedraui and La Comer they totaled 12,666 m².
Walmex opened nine stores in Mexico in the first quarter of 2022 for a total of 2,765; Chedraui opened three, bringing its total to 357, and La Comer opened one, for 78. Soriana closed March with 798 supermarkets.
Jerónimo Cavia, Consumer and Retail Trade analyst at Monex Casa de Bolsa, explained that the drop in Soriana’s sales floor is due to the fact that “at the time it acquired a large number of Comercial Mexicana stores, and many were not profitable. and it was more expensive to have them open”, so since 2020 it has gotten rid of some establishments.
Compared to the same quarter of 2021, the four chains added 164,626 m² of sales floor during the first third of 2022.
In absolute terms, the one with the highest annual profits was Walmex, which accumulated 111,273 m² of sales floor, for 6.5 million square meters, consolidating itself as the self-service chain with the largest sales area in Mexico.
However, in relative terms, La Comer was the chain whose sales area gained the most, with a growth of 8.18% for a total floor space of 335,985 square meters, still in fourth and last place.
The company reported that in its floor expansion during January-March 2022, it invested 2,404 million pesos.
Soriana reported an annual increase in its area of 20,734 m², for a total of 4 million square meters, enough to establish itself in second place in terms of sales floor.
Chedraui remained in third place, having grown its flat by 5,496 m², for a total area of 1.5 million square meters.
Despite being the chain with the smallest area and the lowest sales volume, La Comer was the second most profitable during the first quarter of the year.
For each m² of its surface, it sold 22,653 pesos, just below the 28,521 pesos of Walmex.
Chedraui was the third least efficient with sales of 15,992 pesos per m2, while Soriana was placed last in this category, having sold 9,265 pesos.