Crise in the Brazilian economy reflects high risks, inflation and still effects of the pandemic, specialists avaliam

A crise no varejo brasileiro is making the setor rever the classic business model. The challenges faced by great varejistas such as Lojas Americanas, Tok Stok, Amaro, Riachuelo, Marisa, Renner and Livraria Cultura, for example, raise an alert in all commerce of the country.

This challenging season for the businesses of the varejo fez with which strong brands of the market entered for the group of varejistas who are dating their stores and exugating operations.

According to Max Mustrangi, specialist in company restructuring and CEO of Excellance, Americanas, Marisa and Tok&Stok should not be the only companies facing problems of excessive financial laundering.

“Riachuelo, Via Varejo, Magalu, Natura, C&A, Carrefour, Pão de Açúcar, finally, there are no lack of companies that are not doing well”, he affirms.

Mustrangi projects that new requests for judicial recovery must occur, because many companies are not limited to deal with the current scenario.

“Your requests do not stop growing in relevance. The companies are going through a problem of excessive financial leverage and no cash flow for the payment of their dividends. There are no doubts that this should turn on an alert signal for all businessmen, regardless of the size and segment of their companies”, he warns.

Ulysses Reis, a specialist in varejo and professor at the Strong Business School, comments that in 2020 and 2021, with the start of the pandemic, he saw together with the lockdown and also with a series of economic changes. Most of the world’s population was withdrawn from the labor market during this period.

“Some people will get work in the home office, but many other professions, like people who do not work, in mining and transportation, and even in the hotel and other areas, will have to stop working,” Reis says. He explains that this situation is at your expense and is being paid now in 2022 and 2023.

“Governments of various countries have launched many support programs for people who are outside the job market. These programs will end up generating an inflationary crisis that is happening in almost all the countries of the world. “People could say that the cost of the pandemic is now being paid by families and companies,” says Reis.

Combined with this, he stands out or a specialist, there is still a problem of disruption of the functioning of the productive chain and logistics of the planet. “With these dated companies, we do not have investment and development of ports and transport, aggravating even more the scenario. A world situation was created in which the entire productive system was destructured, has a very high cost and is being paid today”.

For him, like the people, during the pandemic, they will get used to buying in a different way, or he says, they will go buy their houses, receiving the product at home, “now we are having to restructure the entire production chain of distribution, causing A very strong impact.”

Concurrence

Another point that fez that the Brazilian trade entered a crisis was or advanced two foreign sales sites. Platforms such as Shein, Shopee and AliExpress will enter the houses of two Brazilians with products that will please the people and with a much lower price than those offered in the country.

The Ministry of Finance announced that it will begin to collect two taxes on products from Chinese marketplaces at the time of purchase, and avoid denials, precisely to combat this unfair competition.

The Minister of the Farm, Fernando Haddad, chamou of “digital tax”, is the tax of 60% on a purchase that already exists, but that will be collected at the source, before the shipment of the merchandise.

Reis says that the big Brazilian companies that work together competing with the foreigners are not faring, they are suffering in this scenario. The foreign sites are operating in the e-commerce area, not directly while in the country. Ou seja, do not have custos as you have a physical store, equipment, point of sale, aluguel, imposts, enfim.

“Na verdade, they have a series of benefits in favor of them — we produce the fora and trace it for each other.”

Therefore, a part of the Brazilian companies also imports products from them and resells here, or that also represents custo. “So, as nationals, I hardly fear how to compete with the international sites that use the digital medium.”

With high debts, restricted credit, judicial recovery requests and intensifying bankruptcy, several stores are living with this financial problem.

At the beginning of 2023, the Lojas Americanas will enter with a request for judicial recovery in the 4th Vara Empresarial do Rio de Janeiro. The dividend of the varejista is close to R$ 43 billion, which does not involve approximately 16.3 thousand creditors. At the time, the company disclosed a relevant fact showing a “financial inconsistency” of R$ 20 billion in its balance.

According to the company, the company will continue to operate normally more than 1,700 physical stores in all of Brazil, sites and apps, within the returns of the judicial recovery process.

Another company, Renner, announced at the beginning of May that it opened 20 stores of its brands in the first quarter of this year in relation to the last three months of 2022. In total, there are 13 units from Camicado, four from Renner itself and three from Youcom.

In note, the company says that it is customary to adjust the store portfolio and the liquid balance is always positive. “We understand that the openings and dates are natural movements of the wire. The company continues to carry out an analysis of the performance of its operations, as always, now taking into account the flow of post-pandemic clients, which caused a larger and more focused review at the beginning of the year.”

They will affirm that there may be temporary dates, within normality and that, in the same way, in the coming months, they will resume the volume of inaugurations of new stores.

The fashion varejista Marisa also announced, on May 16, that she plans to date 91 stores in the third quarter of 2023, 27%, or a third of the 334 existing units by the end of 2022, more than they are part of a plan of capitalization and restructuring.

It reinforces that, with the completion of two dates of 91 stores in this quarter [abril a junho]the company estimates an Ebitda increase of R$ 62 million on a recurring annual basis.

A Riachuelo dated his concept store located on Rua Oscar Freire, in Jardins, in the northern region of São Paulo. Inaugurated in November 2013, the space occupied 1,200 square meters on the corner with Rua Haddock Lobo, one of the two busiest points of commerce in the Country.

More, it emphasizes that this date was punctual and aimed at the sustainable growth of the Group. “We have a store less than 1km away, on Avenida Paulista and we are in the process of opening another in the region.”

The iconic Livraria Cultura is in a more complicated situation. The TJ-SP (Tribunal de Justiça de São Paulo) denied the appeal filed by the free company that returned to have its default declared. For the disembarker JB Franco de Godoi, the company does not have economic conditions to comply with its recovery plan.

I would like to clarify that the decision to have a newly decreed bankruptcy is not a new discrepancy of the Judicial Recovery Plan, but rather, it refers to the same issues of the death decision, since there are no new allegations of discrepancy of the Plan.

“We are in full activity, in strict compliance with the Plan and there are no trustees requesting the loss of the Library at this time. The only pending issue at the moment – ​​the credit payment from Banco do Brasil – is now being resolved.”

At Tok&Stok, one of the largest mobile vending machines in Brazil, they also made some stores and promoted sales with offers of até 50% to end with the stock of the units. The Domus Aurea technology consultancy, headquartered in Barueri (SP), requested the failure of the company in a court in São Paulo.

The allegation is that the varejista has a division of R$ 3.8 million, referring to a project that was suspended. The value is questioned by Tok&Stok, according to sources.

A fashion varejista Amaro asked the Justiça de São Paulo for the approval of his request for Extrajudicial Recovery, a process in which the company agrees with its creators.

The company has dividends of R$ 244.5 million, of which R$ 151.8 million is in bank dividends and R$ 92.8 million from suppliers.

Both Tok&Stok when Amaro said that he will not speak on the matter.