Mexico’s Femsa: from convenience stores to pharmacies

Financial Times, 5/15/2013

Mexico’s revamped retail industry has seen its greatest transformation at the level of mom-and-pop stores: where disorganized, dingy and poorly-supplied grocery stores were once common in metropolitan areas, there are now brightly-lit, well-stocked and strategically located convenience stores. Now another retail segment faces a similar revolution: pharmacies. And the company likely to lead this turmoil is, again, Fomento Económico Mexicano, or Femsa.

Femsa owns Oxxo, Mexico’s leading convenience store chain. It now wants to replicate a business model that has allowed it to open more than 10,500 convenience stores across the country in 30 years and generate nearly $7.1bn in annual revenue, by running and expanding a small-size pharmacy retail chain. Femsa – which is also the largest publicly-traded Coca-Cola bottling company in the world – recently completed the purchase of Farmacias Yza, one of the leading pharmacy chains in southeastern Mexico. This week, it announced a second acquisition, of Farmacias FM Moderna, based in the state of Sinaloa on the Gulf of Carifornia.

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FEMSA’s José Antonio Fernández Carbajal named one of world’s top 30 CEOs by Barron’s

Barron’s, 3/23/2013

During Fernández’s tenure, FEMSA has grown from a $1.2 billion Mexican beverage company into a $36 billion Latin American powerhouse. It operates the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottler and the region’s fastest-growing retailer, the Oxxo convenience-store chain. When it became clear that global giants were transforming the beer industry, this pragmatist sold the beer business that his wife’s family founded in 1890, to Heineken, in a lucrative deal that gave FEMSA a 20% stake.

As a child, Fernández was called Diablo, a common nickname for hyperactive kids. He still has energy to spare. After two FEMSA security guards were killed in a drug shootout, he sought new ways to make the city of Monterrey safer, focusing more on community and social programs to improve prospects for youth. He also teaches an engineering course at his alma mater, the Tecnológico de Monterrey.

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Harvard Business Review names Mexico Institute Board Co-Chair and FEMSA CEO the Best CEO of the Year

José Antonio Fernández Carbajal

Harvard Business Review, January-February 2013

For years, people have bemoaned executives’ zealous focus on short-term results, which often leads CEOs to make moves that undermine their firms’ long-term prospects and, some say, act irresponsibly. But all the talk won’t change anything if the business world doesn’t adopt a new way of measuring performance. Three professors from France’s Insead believe they have the answer: an innovative scorecard that evaluates CEOs on the basis of the results they delivered over their entire tenures in office. It incorporates three metrics: industry-adjusted shareholder returns, country-adjusted shareholder returns, and increase in market capitalization over that time frame.

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The Harvard Business Review review recognized José Antonio Fernández Carbajal as the top CEO in Mexico. Fernández Carbajal is the head of FEMSA, the 5th firm on Expansión’s list of the largest Mexican companies.

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Indigenous Groups Protest Mexico’s Biggest Wind-Energy Project

Fox Business, 10/17/2012

Mexican fishermen and indigenous groups from the southern state of Oaxaca protested Wednesday in front of the Mexico City offices of participants in a wind-energy project that would be one of the largest ever in Latin America, targeting Coca-Cola bottler and convenience-store operator Femsa (FMX), the Inter-American Development Bank and the Danish government, among others.

The few dozen protesters called for the cancellation of the Marena wind-farm project in a windy area of Oaxaca known as Tehuantepec on the grounds that construction and operation of the 132 windmill towers would hurt the livelihoods of local residents by damaging a delicate ecosystem in which fishermen eke out a modest living.

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Mexico-Bound Monarch Butterflies Film to World Premiered at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC on September 24

Sacramento Bee, 9/24/2012

Every year, the migration of the beautiful Monarch butterflies from Canada to Mexico occurs in the fall as they look for warm weather. Inspired by this incredible natural migration that has mesmerized scientists and admirers for decades, Canadian-based film and television company SK Films is proud to present a spectacular insight to this mysterious migration through the film “Flight of the Butterflies in 3D” at its world premiere to be held at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. on September 24, 2012. Watch the trailerand be amazed by the compelling story of a courageous scientist’s 40-year search to find the secret migration destination of monarchs.

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Mexico’s Coca-Cola Femsa profit rises 6 percent

Reuters, 7/20/11

Mexico’s Coca-Cola Femsa (KOFL.MX) (KOF.N), the largest Coke bottler in Latin America, reported a 6 percent rise in second-quarter profit as higher sales offset rising costs of raw materials.

“Our performance was supported by volume growth across all of our divisions and our ability to implement pricing initiatives over the past several months throughout our main markets,” Chief Executive Officer Carlos Salazar said in a statement.

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FEMSA expands business in Brazil (in Spanish)

Reforma, 10/22/2010

Coca Cola FEMSA (KOF) finished the third trimester with the acquisition of the Matte Leao brand and its 16 bottling plants in Brazil.

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Latin America: Walmart Largest Employer

Latin Business Chronicle, 7/29/2010

Walmart, Pemex and Femsa are the top employers in Latin America. 

Although oil giants Petrobras of Brazil and Pemex of Mexico rank as Latin America’s largest companies in revenues on the Latin 500, they are not the top employers.

The single largest employer in Latin America is US-based retailer Walmart, according to the first annual ranking of Latin America’s Top 60 Employers from Latin Business Chronicle.

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Heineken to Buy Femsa Beer Unit in $7.7 Billion Deal

Bloomberg, 1/11/10

Heineken NVagreed to buy the beer division ofFomento Economico Mexicano SAB, producer of Dos Equis and Mexico’s second-biggest brewer, in an all-stock deal valued at 5.3 billion euros ($7.7 billion) to tap faster sales growth in Latin America.

The Amsterdam-based brewer will issue new shares to give Femsa a 20 percent stake in Heineken Group, the company said in a statement on its Web site today. Heineken rose 3.3 percent in Amsterdam trading, the most since Dec. 4.

The acquisition gives Heineken one of only two beer makers in Mexico, the world’s fourth-most profitable market, and reduces the company’s reliance on slower-growing European markets. Heineken, which distributes Femsa beers including Dos Equis in the U.S., expects savings of 150 million euros a year by 2013 and said it will use the acquisition to sell Femsa brands in Europe and Heineken in Latin America.

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Heineken’s Debt Poses Hurdle to a Femsa Deal

Photo by kirinqueen

The Wall Street Journal, 10/26/09

Femsa Cerveza came into play at just the wrong moment for Heineken NV.

Earlier this month, Mexico-based Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB, or Femsa, said it was in talks with several parties to explore opportunities involving its beer business, Femsa Cerveza, adding that “there can be no assurance that such discussions will lead to any definitive agreement.” Heineken is one of those companies, along with London-based SABMiller PLC.

Heineken is under pressure to go beyond its core strategy of selling premium beers in Western Europe and the U.S., where consumption is set to flatten or even decline. Analysts say it would be better to expand into growth markets in Latin America and Asia.

But whereas rivals such as Anheuser-Busch Inbev and SABMiller have aggressively expanded their presence in emerging markets over the years, Heineken, the world’s third-largest brewer by volume, has lagged.

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