UPDATE 1-Walmart's Mexico unit revenue grows 3.3%; store openings rise
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MEXICO CITY, July 22 (Reuters) - Walmart's Mexico unit on Thursday said revenue grew 3.3% in the second quarter as it revved up store openings again after the pandemic slowed brick-and-mortar expansion.
Walmart de Mexico, the biggest retailer in Mexico, brought in revenue of 174.7 billion pesos ($8.8 billion) in the period.
It also posted net profit of 9.8 billion pesos ($491.3 million), far outpacing the year-earlier period's 1.7 billion pesos, when a major tax charge in Mexico offset a shopping spike due to coronavirus stay-at-home measures.
Walmart de Mexico, also known as Walmex, opened 25 new stores from April to June compared with just 12 a year before.
Chief Executive Guilherme Loureiro said the company is also pushing forward its online business and working on letting users shop online using its e-wallet app, Cashi.
"It's been challenging to adapt so quickly to the changes in the way customers shop," Loureiro said in a webcast accompanying the results. "We will continue to find ways to serve them better."
The company did not disclose e-commerce sales figures for the quarter.
Walmart de Mexico also said its expenses grew more than 10%, in part due to higher employee costs as the company adapts to reforms of Mexico's labor and social security laws. Mexico recently passed a law that will severely limit the use of sub-contracted work.
The reforms do not change the retailer's financial expectations for the year, said Walmart de Mexico's interim Chief Financial Officer Milton Brandt.
He will be replaced next month by Paolo Garcia, who most recently was chief financial officer at Dutch food retail group Ahold Delhaize.
($1 = 19.9470 pesos at end-June) (Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Noe Torres; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)
