Fnac to open in Faro

The French electronic goods and book retailer is adding three more stores to its chain in Portugal with Faro joining Oeiras and Setúbal.

The three new stores will be between 900m2 and 1,600m2 building on the medium size format that gives optimum profitability.

Last December the group’s management commented that it wanted to grow faster and to open up in places with slightly smaller store formats and be more accessible to customers.

There are currently 19 stores in Portugal built up over the last 15 years, the last new store opening in 2010. The Faro store will be located at the burgeoning Fórum Algarve which recently has been attracting customers with a series of store signings including an Apple shop and a new Nespresso outlet.

Fnac management is betting on smaller stores and is open to working with franchisees as it concentrates on reducing costs and building up its online business.

The company has experienced a drop in turnover with €320 million in 2012 representing a €9 million drop from 2008 but the company is weathering the retail downturn and now is expanding in a show of faith in an emerging Portuguese economy.

Cláudia Almeida e Silva took over in 2010 but could not halt the sales decline of 4.2% last year, but Fnac still turned over €654 million last year in Spain and Portugal with first half figures in Portugal up this year.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fnac

Comments  

-4 #3 Geoffrey Williams 2014-08-29 10:28

You feel they are dumping their older stock down here and at unreasonable prices ....

This seems to be a universal problem in Portugal as anyone who has lived here for any length of time will confirm. Our first introduction was several years ago buying a used 2.5 BMW Range Rover.

Even the Rover dearship confirmed we had bought a dog although it did not stop them (and other R R specialists) taking 'thousands' off us until we got rid of it.

Apparently BMW were just experimenting by fitting this engine and sending it south. Knowing that cowboy mechanics could not adjudicate the (7 !) computers - each fighting each other .. and fix the car.

Often a true Friday afternoon repair (known here as a Monday morning !) as the vehicle diagnostics were warning us of the next problem as we drove off the forecourt following the supposed repair of the previous fault !

Or was that more to do with cowboy dealerships .. ?

+3 #2 Atlasfrog 2014-08-29 09:49

FNAC can be a good store in some countries, unfortunately their branch in Guia is well below par.They do not offer the latest models of most equipment like cameras,hi-fi,etc.You feel they are dumping their older stock down here and at unreasonable prices. Thankfully Amazon can supply.

+4 #1 Ana Perreira 2014-08-28 19:33

I'm not surprised with their drop in turnover. Today they let me walk out of their shop in Guia. I asked if they would match the price of a product with the price of RadioPopular (25% difference). They had no interest to look at their website and wanted me to get a pro-forma bill from RadioP.
Yes please or nothing for me; they've shown their
customer services at it's best :)

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