São Paulo – The wholesale and distribution sector grew 4.1% in 2009, with revenues of 131.8 billion (US$ 72.9 billion), 11 billion reals (US$ 6.1 billion) more than in 2008. The figure represents around 5% of the Brazilian Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Growth was boosted mainly by greater buying power in the middle class, which includes around 91 million people. The figures are part of the ABAD/Nielsen Ranking, disclosed on Monday (17), by the Brazilian Association of Wholesalers and Distributors (ABAD), in São Paulo.
The study also shows that the greater volume of products consumed, which includes items like beverages, hygiene products, sweets, snacks and perishable goods, was 2.2% last year. The research included 391 companies in the wholesale and distribution sector.
According to João Carlos Lazzarini, consultancy director at Nielsen, who was responsible for the study, apart from greater participation of middle classes, other factors that boosted the growth in consumption in the country were the preference for purchase sites that offer practicality and convenience to consumers and for sustainable healthy products, as well as the greater purchase of products with greater added value and also more sophisticated ones.
With regard to the regions of the country that boosted sector growth, the highlight was the Northeast and the interior of Minas Gerais. According to chief economist Nelson Barrizzelli, a researcher in the area of Retail Development, Economics and Consumer Behaviour, consumption in the Northeast is due mainly to the buying power of lower income families due to assistance program Family Purse, as well as the real gain in the minimum wage in recent years.
The wholesale distribution sector is responsible for the supply of over one million points of sale throughout Brazil, which corresponds to over half of the grocery consumption market in Brazil – including industrialized food, sweets, beverages, products for personal hygiene, household cleaning products, pharmaceuticals and perfumery, etc.
According to the research, for 2010, sector growth of at least 6% is forecasted for the sector. According to Carlos Eduardo Severini, the president at ABAD, this forecast is based on expected growth in the country. “The GDP should have very significant growth this year and our sector should follow,” he explained.
*Translated by Mark Ament
