The Nogueira Group, which paid €26 million for the insolvent AliSuper chain of convenience stores in 2012, is selling off 18 of its shops, the first nine are going to Intermarché for €5 million.
Negotiations are continuing for further store sales with interest from the Jerónimo Martins Group, owner of Pingo Doce.
José Nogueira bought the AliSuper chain amid much ministerial back-slapping back in 2012, managing to reopen 50 of the 81 shops in the chain once run by the Alicoop cooperative which went into bankruptcy in 2009. Nogueira was keen to use the retail network to sell products from his other businesses.
About the purchase, Nogueira said "I have two companies, one distributing fruits and vegetables, and the other meat processing and trading, so it is an asset to acquire a distribution network. It's a way we can master the most difficult part of the food sector, the part which sells our end products."
The €26 million Nogueira paid was roughly the value of AliSuper's debts to the State, Social Security, bank creditors, suppliers and employees.
The Assistant Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, António Almeida Henriques, said back then that the purchase of the chain by Nogueira Group had “not involved the government spending a single cent.”
The Minister for the Economy at that time, the ill-fated Álvaro Santos Pereira, said that the buyout proved that "the Algarve remains a secure investment."
Nogueira must wish he had never bothered driving south as the old problems of seasonality, high staff on-costs, high fixed rents, old debts and nervous suppliers rapidly drained AliSuper of cash.
A wintertime store closure programme soon developed into a store closure programme and now a sale of prime sites programme to try and stem losses.
It took just two years for this entrepreneur to realise that the reasons the chain went under in the first place had not gone away.
Intermarché now has signed a contract for the acquisition of nine of these stores in Albufeira, Alvor, Quarteira, Aljezur, Sagres and Loulé, and the €5 million should give Nogueira breathing space, but not for long.
The Intermarché deal needs approval from the Competition Authority and in a statement today, Carlos Almeida from Intermarché says the goal is "not only to keep the current 51 jobs, we plan to create an additional 90 jobs in the medium term."
José Nogueira wants to sell a further nine shops to Jerónimo Martins which will turn them into Pingo Doce outlets: negotiations continue.
Nogueira’s intention is to keep his remaining shops, "We will not close stores. We are to restructure the operation and sell those that are not profitable. Our goal is to monetise the group."
The businessman’s statements lack conviction, as did his assurance last month that he was going to expand the chain in a northerly direction to create economies of scale.
