Colombia’s largest private employer Exito Group announced Tuesday that it plans to invest approximately $200 million to open 100 new stores in 60 cities.
This expansion was made possible by Exito Group’s issuance of 1.14 million shares of stock last September which allowed Exito to raise 2.5 billion pesos. Exito first used this revenue to purchase Uruguay’s largest supermarket chain, Disco and Devoto, which led to Exito’s highest quarterly sales in history.
According to Group President Gonzalo Restrepo Lopez in the last quarter of 2011 “Net profit grew by 52.8 percent to 390,000 million pesos.”
Now Exito plans to use this revenue and increased profits to further expand in Colombia. Of the 100 planned stores, 40 will be Surtimax stores, 40 will be Exito Express stores, and the rest will be a mix of larger Carulla and Exito Supermarkets and Hypermarkets.
Exito Group already employs over 36,000 workers in Colombia and plans to hire many more in the coming months.