In the context of inflation, consumer behavior has changed, and today wholesale supermarkets are one of the most used options when buying food and products for daily use. This is one of the conclusions drawn by the SMU company, affiliated with the Saih Group, following its results for the first quarter of this year, which showed an 11.5% increase in earnings reported by the segment between the months of January and March. happened.
According to the company’s financial statements, consolidated revenue during the first three months of this year increased by 5.9% compared to the same period in 2022 and totaled $704,239 million. and Ebitda reached $67,702 million, up 3.7% from that recorded in the prior year quarter.
“In Chile, growth was 5.8% in line with industry growth, despite a high base of comparison,” the company said. And he highlighted that although consumer preferences reflected greater liquidity in the first months of 2022, as it did in 2021, “in later quarters, consumers began to prioritize savings more, more over value.” focus, given the context of inflation, a trend that continued into the first quarter of 2023”.
In this context, SMU highlighted the growth of the Alvi, Mayorista 10 and Super 10 formats, registering a combined growth of 11.5% in revenue. And they pointed out that in the case of Unimark, the revenue growth compared to 2022 was 3%.
“Across all formats, the trend of increasing traffic seen in the recent past was maintained. Meanwhile, the average ticket continued to fall slowly, but to a lesser extent than the increase in transactions, and remains above historical levels,” he said.
Benefit and Risk Classification
From SMU, on the other hand, he indicated that the company’s non-operating results in the first quarter of 2023 were “impacted by the sale of the OK Markets business in the first quarter of 2022, which was reflected in the other income line as well as in income tax income”.
“The other relevant impact of the quarter was lower inflation, generating lower losses from recapture units, but higher income tax expense as a result of deferred taxes,” he noted.
According to the firm, these two effects explain the variation in Q1 profit, which reached $21,776 million, down 55.4% from the profit recorded in Q1 2022.
“Of this difference, $20,844 million corresponded to the OK Market impact and $10,608 million to higher income tax expense. These impacts were partially offset by the improved non-operating result, excluding the OK Market impact”, he indicated.
Lastly, the company highlighted that between March and April 2023, the ICR and fail-rate rating agencies improved the risk rating outlook from “stable” to “positive”, rating in the “A+” category to be confirmed.
“In both cases, the change was a result of the annual review processes of each rating agency based on the financial statements for the year 2022, and highlights the strength of the financial position and the solidity of the operational and financial reforms. Thus, the company is one step away from a rating of AA-“, SMU said.
