With the members of the Garbarino family outside the company, a new stage now begins, according to sources close to the businessman detailed to Ámbito.

Rosales decided to keep Carlos García as CEO of the chain that has more than 200 stores, of which 191 operate under the Garbarino brand and another 54 as Compumundo. The sale operation included all the group's business units. That is, in addition to those mentioned, the agency Garbarino Viajes, the financial company Fiden and the electrical appliance factories Digital Fueguina and Tecnosur also change hands. These last two are based in Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego. It also has distribution centers in different parts of the country and its own fleet of delivery vehicles.

In total, the operations of the Garbarino group employ 4,325 people directly. According to the same sources, the continuity of all jobs “is guaranteed.” They even assure that as the new strategic plan progresses there will be more incorporations.

This commitment was key to unblocking the sale of Garbarino to Grupo Prof, since it allowed us to obtain the approval of the Commercial Employees Union, headed by Armando Cavalieri.

Rosales plans to make an investment of about $2,000 million to launch the reconversion of the chain, which has been in a very complicated situation in recent years due to the drop in consumption, which was worsened by the pandemic. Garbarino currently has all its stores closed and they only attend to the collection of outstanding fees.

In this framework, the strongest bet in the immediate future is to boost online sales. For this, part of the investment will be allocated to the development of your website to turn it into a true marketplace. This is an aspect that the chain has already put into practice by opening the platform to third-party products, but without the expected results.

With the idea of ​​also supporting sales through physical stores once the quarantine ends, the new owner of Garbarino set his sights on neighboring countries that, according to surveys already carried out, have less development in this area of ​​retail. Paraguay, Uruguay, Ecuador and Bolivia appear on the list.

The idea is not to open our own stores but to look for potential local partners in each of those countries to offer Garbarino's know-how, expanding the visibility of the brand and developing the most incipient markets. The estimated time to complete the landing is two years, according to what this newspaper learned.

This is also the time they believe it will take to have their financial situation completely regularized. The entry of Grupo Prof. into Garbarino implied a renegotiation of its debts, both bank debts and those it maintains with its suppliers.

In the first batch, Rosales got the banks to agree to apply a haircut of around 70% on a debt estimated at around $5,000 million. Meanwhile, it was able to obtain a 35% discount on another $7 billion owed to appliance manufacturers. The agreed terms for payments under the new conditions would range between 18 and 24 months, they say.

In a statement distributed on Wednesday night, Rosales highlighted “the enormous challenge involved in launching the new business and expansion plan of the largest retail chain in the Argentine market.” And he recalled that the family business has “69 years of history” in the country.

Ambito.com