The big-box retailer Liverpool is set to invest 10 billion pesos (US $491 million) in Mexico this year, the company’s finance director Enrique Güijosa said.

The figure represents a 66.6% increase on the company’s investment in 2021 in real terms. Last year, it only invested 5.97 billion pesos ($294.6 million).

Güijosa said the company plans to open 15 new stores of its Suburbia brand and two new Liverpool department stores this year. Half the investment will go into logistics and technology.

In 2022, it projects growth of 5% to 5.5% for Liverpool and 8% to 8.5% for Suburbia.

Güijosa added that the challenges facing the chain were inflation, which soared to 7.2% in the first half of February, lack of economic growth and potential disruption to their supply chains.

However, he said the company could mitigate supply related challenges. “We have already seen some stock outages in various departments. We are confident that we will be able to follow the issue closely and anticipate it,” he said.

Liverpool reported earnings of 151.7 billion pesos in 2021, a 4.7% increase on sales in 2019 and a 30.8% hike on 2020.

The chain has 1.5 million square meters of floor space in 69 cities in Mexico. Its portfolio includes 122 Liverpool department stores, 169 Suburbia stores, 60 boutiques including Gap and Banana Republic and it partners with Spanish department store giant El Corte Inglés to run 50 Sfera boutique outlets.

It also owns 28 shopping malls.

Founded by Frenchman Jean Baptiste Ebrard in 1847, it was originally called The Cloth Case but changed the name to Liverpool because most of the merchandise it sold in the mid-19th century was imported from the English port city. Its headquarters are in Santa Fe in the west of Mexico City.

With reports from Milenio