The department store chain Coppel will invest 6.3 billion pesos (US $191.7 million) to open 423 new stores over the next four years, according to the company’s director of real estate.

Domingo Soto said in an interview that Grupo Coppel eventually plans to have more than 2,000 stores.

Founded in Sinaloa in the early 1940s, the chain currently has 1,561 stores. Once the 423 new ones have opened, it will be just 16 short of the 2,000 mark.

Soto said that Coppel has the capacity to meet a wide range of consumers’ needs because “we have 30 different businesses” within a single store.

The chain sells products ranging from motorcycles to baby clothes, offers banking services and is a travel agency as well as a department store. It also operates nine clothing stores under the Fashion Market brand.

Coppel’s stores were able to remain open during the suspension of nonessential business activities in April and May due to the coronavirus precisely because it offers banking services through its BanCoppel division.

As a result, the company was able to continue selling goods to in-store customers at a time when other department stores were limited to online sales.

With people spending more time at home due to the pandemic, online shopping is growing quickly in Mexico and Coppel hasn’t missed out on its share of the increasingly lucrative market.

CEO Agustín Coppel said recently that online sales now make up for more than 10% of total sales whereas before the pandemic they only accounted for 2%.

Source: El Financiero (sp)