The expansion of Tiendas 3B and OXXO represent success stories, with a favorable outlook.

For BBB Foods, owner of Tiendas 3B, Mexico presents a significant opportunity due to the low penetration of hard discounting in the country. 

BBB Foods believes there is potential to open at least 12,000 additional Tiendas 3B stores in Mexico’s urban areas, considering current population levels. 

Tiendas 3B and OXXO

To that end, the company has identified municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants, as each of its stores serves a similar number of people in a commercial area of 800 meters from each store. 

This means a six-fold increase in its 1,892 registered stores as of December 31, 2022.

Furthermore, as of December 31, 2022, Mexico only had approximately 26 hard-discount stores per million inhabitants, a considerably lower figure compared to other similar markets such as Turkey, Germany and Poland, which had respectively 261, 89 and 117 stores per million inhabitants, according to Euromonitor data. 

If Mexico were to achieve a penetration rate similar to the average for those countries (approximately 156 hard discounters per million inhabitants), the total number of hard discounters could reach approximately 20,064, based on Mexico’s population of 129 million. 

Expansion

According to BBB Foods, this would represent approximately 16,700 additional stores compared to the 3,900 stores in operation as of December 31, 2022. 

To provide further context, OXXO, the leading chain in the Mexican convenience store market, operated 21,458 stores as of December 31, 2022.

So the scope for expansion is clear, and comparison with other markets underscores the significant growth potential for Tiendas 3B in Mexico.

Company’s growth

Alejandro Davila is the Central Real Estate Director of BBB Foods. 

Prior to joining Tiendas 3B in 2022, Dávila worked at OXXO, where he served as General Manager of OXXO Colombia and was closely involved in OXXO’s international expansion, overseeing the company’s growth in Colombia, Chile, Brazil and Peru between 2018 and 2021.