Supermarket chain Chedraui is looking to grab a slice of the convenience store market dominated by chains such as Oxxo and 7-Eleven by opening 30 new mini-supermarkets this year.

Branded under the names Súper Che and Supercito, the stores range in size from 240 to 930 square meters whereas Chedraui’s largest supermarkets are on average 7,000 square meters.

The publicly listed company will invest a total of 3.95 billion pesos (US $213.8 million) in 2018, which will mainly be focused on increasing sales.

The chain is also aiming to open 12 regular and súper Chedraui supermarkets by the end of the year, while some of the resources will be directed towards its interests in the United States.

In the first six months of the year, six Supercito stores and one regular supermarket opened, meaning that the bulk of the investment will be spent in the second half of 2018.

Based on comments made by company CEO José Antonio Chedraui Eguía, much larger investment will follow in the coming years.

“We could probably open 5,000 stores in Mexico in this format [Súper Che and Supercito],” he said in a telephone call with analysts.

“Just in Mexico City there is space for more than 1,000 stores . . . Consequently, we see a great growth opportunity in these two new formats we are testing.”

The mini-format stores that have already opened are located in Mexico City, Villahermosa, Veracruz and Toluca and further growth in the sector will focus on the south of the country, where Chedraui Eguía believes the company could benefit from the incoming government’s development and decentralization plans.

Chedraui first launched Súper Che in 2005 but the name soon disappeared and didn’t reappear again until 2016. The first Supercito stores opened last year.

Together they currently account for 12% of all Chedraui stores and last year contributed to 1% of the chain’s total sales.

Source: El Financiero (sp)