Supplier management

The Senior Vice President for Self-service Merchandising, made up by the Perishable, Apparel, Groceries, General Merchandise, Consumables and Pharmacy Vice Presidents, and Supplier Development Direction, supports relationship with our suppliers. In addition, our Compliance area monitors the quality of products and compliance with regulations in force, as described in The customer/member is first chapter.

Strengthening our merchants’ capabilities is critical for the development of a sound relationship with suppliers to have the best products in our stores. In 2014, the Merchants’ Academy prepared 1,670 merchants. In addition, Retail Link is a platform that allows suppliers analyze their performance on product sell-thru at a national and local level, thus providing information for better planning their business.

The work performed with suppliers on programs for better modulars, packaging efficiencies to increase space productivity and product development of private label leads to a long-term business vision. Consequently, this relationship provides a good pathway to cooperate on other activities such as environmental initiatives to contribute reducing production, packaging, and distribution impacts on environment, as described on the Environmental care chapter.

Logistics capacities developed and enhanced by the Company allows suppliers to take their products more efficiently to points of sale in the 6 countries where we operate throughout the our 24 distribution centers.