Sonae

: a retailer or a producer?

Abstract

Founded in 1959, Sonae was one of the largest Portuguese corporations, and the market leader in the national retail arena. Since the beginning of the 21st century Sonae´s strategy was based on expanding internationally. The Group´s main objective was to become a large multinational organization and to achieve at least 25% of revenues coming from external markets. However, until 2012 the Group’s main holding company – Sonae MC – operated exclusively on national territory where the development of Private Labels (PLs) played a major role. Thus, to achieve the Group´s goal Sonae MC’s internationalization was a crucial issue. Recognizing that, the management has decided to start international trade by the beginning of 2013. As a matter of fact, Sonae MC’s first steps in the foreign ground were exporting PLs to other retail chains. Following this strategy, Sonae MC was entering a different world from its core business – retailing. As a matter of fact, a retailer by essence was start thinking and acting as a producer. Sonae’s path is a very interesting and rich subject of discussion, as it includes topics of PLs impact in the market, growth strategies and internationalization processes. Thus it is suitable for marketing, strategy or retailing courses. This refection focuses mainly on the analysis of the actual international strategy, assessing its viability and proposing alternative strategic approaches.

Date of Award	14 Feb 2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Nuno Magalhães Guedes (Supervisor)