CompraoAlquila Real Estate

By: Frances Ryan / Caribbean Business

Walmart’s announcement to shift seven of its stores to a 24-hour schedule and confirmation of its $200 million local expansion plans help set a more positive tone for the retail industry in 2011.

Overall, year-end sales will improve modestly, by 3% to 5% as forecast by CARIBBEAN BUSINESS (CB Nov. 3). An early start to the holiday retail season, more precise inventory forecasts, adequate retail mix, aggressive pricing and attractive payment plans, including layaway, are among the measures that will yield positive yearend results for retailers.

With estimated combined sales of $3.5 billion from its local Walmart, Sam’s Club and Amigo supermarket stores, Walmart neared completion of the new Sam’s Club on Kennedy Avenue and broke ground on its multilevel Walmart Supercenter store in Santurce, both of which are in San Juan.

Accounting for 15 million square feet of the island’s retail space, the shopping center segment was a bit of a battlefield in 2011, with ongoing legal action between Empresas Fonalledas, owners of Plaza Las Américas, and developers of the $294 million Plaza Internacional project, Century Development and Taubman Centers. Venezuela-based Grupo Sambil’s proposed $414 million shopping center in Guaynabo didn’t escape Empresas Fonalledas’ wrath, either.

This year’s new arrivals included: PetSmart, T.J. Maxx, Victoria’s Secret and Steve Madden. New dining offers include Texas de Brazil, Teriyaki Xpress, Buns the Burger Shop, DiYukas, Casa Lola and the reopened Mango’s. It was cold war between frozen yogurts, with Yogen Früz and Yogurt Fit ahead of the pack.

Still, 2011 wasn’t kind to more than 100 restaurants that had to close this year.

Meanwhile, closing of bankrupt Borders Books Music & Café stores unleashed a bidding war for the prime Plaza Las Américas locale, with mall owners outbidding a couple of local hopefuls for the 30,000-square-foot space.

The island’s $6 billion food industry saw its sales dwindle as a result of the island’s ongoing economic situation and continues to battle the local restaurant industry over the distribution rules and regulations of the $2 billion federal Nutrition Assistance Program.

On the pharmacy front, CVS drugstore chain continued with its $400 million expansion, while industry leader Walgreens, with more than 110 locations, followed suit with the opening of a new store at Santurce’s Stop 18 and the addition of grocery departments to as many locations as would accommodate them.

Small retailers saw signs of improvement, said Ignacio Veloz, president of the United Retailers Association, based on new marketing strategies, becoming partners with other retailers and identifying new export markets.

He added that hundreds of Puerto Rican companies generated more than $143 million in new sales through their participation in some 14 national and international export events this year.

It was another fl at year for the local $900 million beer industry, despite new arrivals including Cervecera de Puerto Rico’s Magna; MillerCoors’ Blue Moon and V. Suárez’s new distribution of Brooklyn Beer.

While Ponce’s Destilería Serrallés is still gunning for a larger slice of the island’s rum-incentive program, Florida-based Caribbean Distillers introduced Roberts Spiced Rum, a runner-up contender to Captain Morgan, whose production moves from Serrallés to the U.S. Virgin Islands next year.