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SÃO PAULO – A few months after joining the mobile distribution platform of Rappi, GPA (PCAR4) has changed its strategy and announced Monday (10) the acquisition of 100% of operations an essentially identical company: the James Delivery, of Curitiba.
The agreement, entered into force on Tuesday (11), integrates the founders of the startup as group leaders: Lucas Cheschin, previously executive director of the application, becomes CEO of # 39, a GPA company; Eduardo Petrelli, Ivo Roveda and Juliano Hauer, other members of the board of the acquired company, idem.
These young people, whose combined age "turns 80," say Ronaldo Labrudi, vice president of GPA, have contracts linked to an ambitious mission: to transform their company into a bigger Super App in Latin America . It should be remembered that Super App is the nomenclature given to delivery applications of various products such as drugs, foods and commodities within one hour maximum. This is an evolution of next-day (24-hour), same-day (4 hours) and click-and-pull (online purchase and physical store withdrawal) delivery services, which are already part of the portfolio. of the group.
What does not change, initially, are the operations of the companies: the seat of James remains in Curitiba and users continue to have access to all products already offered by the platform. With the exception of supermarkets, where the GPA maintains exclusivity, the 500 contracts with retailers in the most diverse industries will be maintained – and new contracts may be signed.
Bye, Rappi; hello, data
GPA currently has an exclusive agreement with the start-up company Rappi, leader of the category in São Paulo and offering more relevant coverage outside the South region. It is also possible to buy in the group supermarkets via Rapiddo. and Glovo. These partnerships are continuing at first – since James does not exist in the largest national places – and will gradually die out.
According to Peter Estermann, CEO of the group, all the cities where GPA has a significant number of stores should have James' services by the end of 2019. Until then, the deliveries of the supermarkets Pão de Açúcar and Extra outside Paraná continue without change.
"It was the most important decision that the company has taken in the face of innovation lately, and speed speaks volumes," said the executive at a meeting with the company. press. According to him, the first contact took only two months and a day to define the company.
The race against the clock is a cause: GPA wants to reach first in an area that has not been explored by Brazilian retailers – and virtually non-existent for retailers.
"This is not a logistics and distribution company," says Estermann. "The most important is the knowledge of the customer and the integration of James data in our data," he adds. In general terms, it is simple: there is a type of Brazilian who wants fast delivery of various products, and the GPA wants to know.
Without disclosing the value of the operation, GPA, controller of the brand as Pão de Açúcar, Assaí and Extra, sees it as an essential step towards the beginning of a more intense change towards the omnichannel strategy , whose most robust representative in Brazil is Luiza Magazine, with no major equivalent in food retailing.
With the help of these data, GPA expects to be able to provide various services, in addition to retail, on its own platform. Estermann talks about logistics, financial services and financing, all in a "large food market offering digital services to other retailers, a mission that begins in 2019."
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