Americanas vacates half of the logistics warehouse in Rio Grande do Sul

The effects of the Americanas crisis are widening in Rio Grande do Sul. In addition to the retailer’s liabilities with suppliers from Rio Grande do Sul and the reduction in staff, it is now the logistics segment that is affected. The operation that the company, in Judicial Recovery (RJ) since last January after a billionaire hole in cash surfaced, had inside one of the parks in the Metropolitan Region was revised, with the return of part of the occupied area.

According to data from a company that leases logistics structures in Brazil and monitors the availability of warehouses, the retailer delivered half of the area already in 2022, indicating that it would already be adjusting the use of areas.

SDS Properties disclosed that Americanas delivered 20,000 square meters of space within the Modular 118 logistics condominium, on the banks of RS-118, in Gravataí, which belongs to Montabil, a family group that has former members of the Metabil group among its shareholders.

The retailer does not detail where and how much it is reducing in the logistical areas of its operations, nor does it indicate that Gravataí is on the list. In a note, Americanas informs that it is reviewing the logistical planning for 2023, “considering the new financial reality of the company”. The brand says that it would not yet have a definition of how the current occupation will look.

The column Retail Minute made contact with the person responsible for Montabil on Wednesday (22), but he did not want to give more information, claiming that he would be entering a meeting. After that, he did not respond to WhatsApp and email contacts asking for further clarification.

One of the questions is about paying rent. In the retailer’s debt list, there are physical store contracts, for example. The giant has already communicated to shopping centers that it would not pay rent prior to RJ’s request.

The mayor of Gravataí, Luiz Zaffalon, comments that the impact of the reduction or even deactivation of the operation is felt in jobs and revenue generation in services in the short term. For collection, Zaffalon indicates that the loss in collection is more in the medium and long term, as the output flow of products is more staggered, due to the large inventory of items that was designed for the Modular warehouse.

“The operation in Gravataí was focused on the back office of logistics for its physical network and e-commerce, with a large inventory. As a result, the return on ICMS occurs over time. The closure of the activity does not cause a great loss of collection in this moment”, projects Zaffalon.

Americanas occupied around 830 thousand square meters in logistical parks throughout Brazil in 2022, says SDS, occupying the fourth position among the largest warehouse occupants, behind only Market Livre, Amazon and Magazine Luiza.

The CEO of SDS, Simone Santos, points out that the retailer’s conduct should increase the vacancy rate of the logistics parks in Rio Grande do Sul, which stood at 16.7% at the end of last year.

“Rio Grande do Sul’s total inventory of logistics condominiums is 550,000 square meters. With vacancy, there are 91,800 square meters available on the market”, calculates Simone. In the country, the total stock of logistics condominiums is 24 million square meters.

“E-commerce boosted the performance of the market, which closed 2021 with the best indices in the monitored historical series. The forecast was that 2022 would be a good year, but not as excellent as 2021 was, considering the market’s natural accommodations”, comments the CEO from the leasing company, in a note.

In addition to Americanas, other retail giants also face difficulties in paying rents and have already had areas threatened with eviction, including Marisa and TokStok.