Mexican Retail Association Says May Sales Rose Dow Jones
go to original June 12, 2012

Mexican retail association Antad said Tuesday that sales increased 12.3% on the year in May at its member establishments while same-store sales rose 5.4%, outperforming gains already reported by the country's largest retailer.

Antad, whose members run more than 30,000 retail stores including supermarkets and department stores, noted that last month brought a difficult calendar comparison as it contained one less Sunday than May 2011.

Department stores outperformed, with total sales at those outlets rising 26.3% and same-store sales up 20.5% on the year amid strong sales of shoes and clothing.

For the first five months of 2012, Antad retailers reported total accumulated sales of 409 billion pesos ($29.15 billion) for annual growth of 11.3% versus the same period of 2011.

The country's top retailer, Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB, reported last week that its Mexican sales rose 8.4% in May to MXN28.39 billion. On a comparable basis, counting only stores that have been in operation for at least a year, Walmex's sales in the country were a modest 1% higher than in May 2011.

Analysts say the competitive environment for grocery sales has heated up, with supermarket chains such as Grupo Comercial Chedraui SAB and Organizacion Soriana SAB challenging Walmex on prices of perishable goods.

Walmex is also a member of Antad.

amy.guthrie@dowjones.com.

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