Convenience Stores Expanding Rapidly in Mexico Carlos Navarro

University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository

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8-18-1993 Convenience Stores Expanding Rapidly In Mexico Carlos Navarro

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Recommended Citation Navarro, Carlos. "Convenience Stores Expanding Rapidly In Mexico." (1993). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/sourcemex/2936

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Latin America Digital Beat (LADB) at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in SourceMex by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LADB Article Id: 057405 ISSN: 1054-8890 Convenience Stores Expanding Rapidly In Mexico by Carlos Navarro Category/Department: General Published: Wednesday, August 18, 1993

According to El Financiero International weekly business newspaper, convenience stores are spreading quickly throughout Mexico, often competing for business with small independent neighborhood stores. Many of the new convenience stores are starting operations at sites adjacent to gas stations owned or franchised by the state-run oil company PEMEX, which is attempting to improve the services offered to customers. The latest arrival to the Mexican market is Diamond Shamrock, which in early August finalized an agreement with Monterrey-based service station developer Gas Orsan to open 200 convenience stores over the next five years at PEMEX service stations. Diamond Shamrock based in San Antonio, Texas will be competing for the Mexican convenience store market with US- based companies 7-Eleven (Southland Corp.) and Circle K, and Mexican company OXXO. However, according to industry sources, there are ample opportunities for all four chains. "There are so few stores right now that everyone has room to grow," said Guillermo Garcia Sada, director of Grupo Protexa's subsidiary Impulsadora K, which owns the Mexican rights for Circle K. OXXO, a subsidiary of the business conglomerate Fomento Economico Mexicano (FEMSA), operates 1,550 stores in 19 Mexican states. Currently only 14 of OXXO's stores are located adjacent to PEMEX stations. However, the company expects to nearly double its number of stores to 3,000 by the year 2000, placing many of those stores at gas stations. Dallas-based Southland Corp. operates 165 stores in Mexico, through a joint venture with Monterrey Valores, a distributor of tires and auto parts and owner of agricultural properties and meat outlets. Meantime, Impulsadora K plans to enter the Mexico City market with 50 Circle K stores in September. The company opened 17 stores in different parts of Mexico during 1992, but none in the first six months of 1993. (Source: El Financiero International, 08/15/93)

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