The new retail trend is autonomous minimarkets, which provide distribution reach to large industries, make life easier for consumers and guarantee new business even for traditional supermarket chains. Only Honest Market Brasil plans, through franchising, to install 28 minimarkets in Minas this year. These are units that operate without employees, with a mix of 15 thousand approved products and serve condominiums and companies. “The mini-market brings proximity and availability 7 days a week, 24 hours a day”, says Gustavo Sartott, co-founding partner of Honest. Today the company already has almost 400 stores in the country, and should reach the end of the year with 600 to 650 points of sale installed. To show the growth potential of autonomous minimarkets, Sartott recalls that in Brazil there are around 485 thousand condominiums. “We are able to serve a quarter of these condominiums,” he says, adding that this segment should be consolidated in two or three years. In Minas, where the franchisor created in 2020 had its first unit, there are already 18 Honest minimarkets, which should have gross revenue of R$220,000 this year. With the 28 new units, gross revenue in the state will increase to R$520 thousand per year and the total number of units will more than double, reaching 46. The investment in each unit varies between R$25 thousand and R$50 thousand.
Fueling
The first Shell Recharge electric vehicle charging station in Belo Horizonte was opened on Friday at the Shell Oceano Station, in Barro Preto. The project was developed by Raízen, Shell Recharge licensee in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. In addition to inaugurating the station, Raizen signed a technical cooperation agreement with the government of Minas to promote electromobility in the state. The agreement includes initiatives such as parking spaces for electric vehicles, exclusive circulation lanes and the construction of an electric charging hub connecting strategic points, such as Confins Airport, the Administrative City, and UFMG. The BH station is the second in the Shell Recharge network in the state. The first is on BR-381, in Betim, with 150 kilowatts (kW) of capacity. Last year, 6,413 electric vehicles were registered in Minas Gerais.
Serra Village
Somattos and Patrimar are launching a new development that will have more than 12 thousand square meters with three towers with 161 apartments ranging from 137 square meters to 202 square meters and a privileged view of the nature that surrounds Aura. The project, with an estimated overall sales value of R$400 million, has already been presented to brokers and can now be seen at the stand opened yesterday on Rua Coronel Felipe Faria, in Vila da Serra. The project confirms the real estate expansion in the Nova Lima region, which is becoming a hub for large projects and which last year, from January to September alone, saw a 14% increase in the number of launches compared to the same period of the previous year.
Profitable Beauty
Faced with the need to find a beauty salon that would serve quickly, entrepreneurs Márcia Queirós and Michelle Wadhy created Fast Escova in 2018, with an investment of R$60,000 to open the franchise’s first store. In 2023, the network founded by the two partners recorded revenue of R$133.9 million. With an investment of R$240,000 to open a store today, Fast Escova has 19 units in Minas, with another 7 being implemented. Throughout Brazil, the company has more than 280 franchised units in the beauty segment, which incorporate the concept of speed into other services, such as hairstyles, nails, eyebrows and even hair treatments.
In the Triangle
And the business of autonomous minimarkets caught the attention of Supernosso, which in 2020 joined Be Honest, a chain that at the time had 50 units. Since then, the Supernosso Group unit already has more than 250 units in the country, a number that increased at the beginning of March with the purchase of Snackin, with 12 stores in Uberaba and Uberlândia and which together had revenues of R$2.5 million in 2023 “With this acquisition and partnership, Be Honest is well positioned to meet the needs and preferences of consumers in the Triângulo Mineiro,” said Marcelo Carneiro, managing partner of Be Honest.
New board
With the presence of businessman Jorge Gerdau Balbi Johannpeter, shareholder and president of the Board of Directors of Gerdau, the largest Brazilian stock producer, the board of directors of the Belo Horizonte Leader Training Institute (IFL-BH) took office last Monday. Businesswoman Júlia Zingoni Moraes, partner and director of Marketing and Style at Grupo Água Fresca Lingerie e Valisere Belo Horizonte took office as president of the institute this year. The ceremony brought together leaders from Minas Gerais, such as the vice-president of Fecomércio, Emerson Belotti (on the left), and the vice-president of CDL-BH, Lucas Pitta.
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“Agriculture has been the biggest driver of economic activity in Minas. And, recently, we adopted a measure in the state, which I hope the municipalities also adopt, which is to migrate the entire fleet to fuel with ethanol, which is a renewable fuel”
Romeo Zema
Governor of Minas
Tags: Autonomous minimarkets gain space Minas
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