Unicomer Group (Spanish: Grupo Unicomer), is a multinational retailing group headquartered in San Salvador, El Salvador. It operates several chains of retail brands in the consumer durables sector, specializing in furniture, audio & video, appliances, and electronics in over 1,000 stores in Central America, the Caribbean, South America, and the United States, employing over 15,000 associates.
History
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The Unicomer Group was founded in 2000, when it acquired the retail operations in Central America of the Dutch group CETECO NV.
This "merger" was called in Spanish a "Union Comercial", and hence the abbreviated name "Unicomer".
Unicomer Group owns large brands such as La Curaçao (Central America and the Dominican Republic). Almacenes Tropigas in Central America. Gollo in Costa Rica, Artefacta in Ecuador and Electro Facil in Paraguay.
In the Caribbean region, Unicomer Group operates through its retail brand Courts. Other brands in the region are Lucky Dollar, Omni, AMC Unicon, among others. Unicomer USA and Courts Caribbean located in the United States.
As of April 15, 2015 Unicomer Group acquired brands, intellectual property and contracts of existing RadioShack franchisees throughout Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Holding a promise to expand presence of this chain in these regions as new operations and with existing franchisees.
Since the year 2000 Unicomer Group has grown from operating 4 store chains in Central America, to operating more than 30 brands in 24 countries in Central America, South America, the Caribbean islands and USA.
Brands operated by Unicomer Group
About La Curacao
The Central American retail chain La Curaçao was established in 1890 under the name Curaçao Trading Company which dedicated itself to port exploitation. By 1911 it was acquired by the Dutch Curaçao Trading Company (CETECO) renovating into selling house hold and agricultural products. In 1945 it consolidated into the household appliance store we know today.
In 2000, the Unicomer Group was formed when it acquired CETECO operations including La Curaçao. Operations were strengthened by the acquisition in countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Dominican Republic. In the year 2004, it opened two stores under the name of UNICOMER in the United States.
La Curaçao expands its services on October 2005 introducing Opticas La Curaçao in Guatemala, selling ophthalmological products . On February 2006, it is introduced in El Salvador and furthermore in Nicaragua on October of the same year, and later Honduras. La Curaçao Optical’s purpose is to offer its clients lenses and frames for eye and sunglasses, as well as ocular medical consultations with specialists and advanced technology machinery.
La Curaçao opened its e-commerce site in 2003.
Additionally it opened a division store La Curaçao Cash, in order to exploit preferential customers by providing cash loans to be paid in instalments. This concept begins in Guatemala in 2013 and with its success it is now present in Honduras totalling of 15 stores.
As of 2017, La Curaçao branched out to more than 200 stores. La Curaçao has high acceptance in commercial preference, due to the fact that it offers its customers additional benefits that facilitate the purchase, such as instant credit, free delivery, extended warranties, and maintenance service for all products bought in any of the company’s stores.
About Courts
Courts was founded in 1850, with only one store in England. The company was established in the Caribbean region since 1959, and is the Caribbean's largest furniture, appliance and electrical retailer. The company has stores across the Caribbean islands: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago, and also on the South American continent in Guyana. In 2006, Unicomer Group realized the first ever LBO in the Caribbean by acquiring the publicly traded operations of Courts in Jamaica and Barbados, and by acquiring the remaining operations directly from the holding company, Courts plc, in the UK.
In 2008, Unicomer Group opened its first Courts Caribbean store in Brooklyn, NY. In 2011 Unicomer Group expanded its services by opening a store in Queens, catering principally to the Caribbean immigrant communities in the area.
Just as its sister store La Curaçao, synergy between regions led Courts to open its optical branch, Courts Optical, in 2012.
In 2014 Courts opens its e-commerce store, offering a wide range of products available for purchase for people living in the Caribbean, as well as those living outside the Caribbean and wish to send products back home.
About Gollo
Gollo was founded in 1974 in Costa Rica with only four employees at the time.
In the year 2000, Gollo introduced its mascot with the same name. And in 2005, the slogan "Solo Bueno" is introduced.
Today the store chain is comprised with more than 120 stores, more than 700 thousand square feet of sales area, more than 400 thousand customers and 1,600 employees. Service, friendship, and commitment are the values that have made Gollo leader in retailing technology, furniture and home appliances in the Costa Rican market. Values which make Gollo the perfect fit when joining Unicomer Group on September 2012.
Under Unicomer Group, Gollo launches its e-commerce in February 2014 offering its loyal customers another point of purchase with online chat support, in store pickup and home delivery.
Also, in 2014 Gollo Optical is launched with the purpose to offer its clients lenses and frames for eye and sunglasses, as well as ocular medical consultations with specialists and technology just as its sister stores, La Curaçao and Courts.
About Artefacta
Founded in 1989 with Peruvian investments, Artefacta began as an electrical goods assembly plant under de name ETELSA. A few years in, the company took a more commercial business strategy opening two stores in Ecuador: one un Quito and one in Guayaquil.
Following this, the company decided to change its name to a more commercial one, and this is how Artefacta was born, Ecuadorian appliances for the home.
In 2002, Artefacta decided to extend its product line to Motorcycles and cellular phones, making it one of the first chains that opened a different sales channel for these products. Two years later in 2004 â€" the company began selling desktops and laptops, and is today one of the fastest growing lines of the company.
Artefacta decided to change its advertising concept to a friendlier and more innovative strategy in 2008, adopting the image “Family of appliancesâ€. Incorporated into all the advertising of the company, it improved their identification levels, top of mind and advertising campaign results.
In 2009, Artefacta was the first store in Ecuador to venture into the mass sale of insurance, offering its customers a package of covers life, accident and unemployment insurance in order to improve customer service.
At the end of 2011, Artefacta with its 98 stores joins the Unicomer Group family.
About Almacenes Tropigas
Almacenes Tropigas began a liquified gas company in 1955. It soon attended the demand for small appliances and home goods and began commercializing these typed of goods.
In 1988, the gads part of the company was acquired by Shell International and by 1992, the Dutch business group CETECO acquired the household appliance part, separating both businesses.
Almacenes Tropigas carried out a daring strategy that allowed them to cover a larger share of the market, backed up by La Curaçao, positioning itself as second in the electric appliance market.
In the year 2000, Unicomer Group bought the CETECO group. At that time Almacenes Tropigas had reached a significant penetration in the Central American region, and as part of the new group it continued with its aggressive expansion plan and creating new employment opportunities.
During the early months of 2001, Almacenes Tropigas implemented the door-to-door sales system, starting its operations in El Salvador and rolling out this modality to the rest of the Central American countries in October of the same year.
In 2007, Almacenes Tropigas started operations in Belize. As of 2015, it reaches a total of 130 stores distributed through El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Belize.
As an added value, and like its sister chain La Curaçao, TropiCash offers its preferred customers the opportunity to acquire cash loans with affordable installments.
About RadioShack franchise
Unicomer Group’s shareholders initially acquired a RadioShack franchise in El Salvador in January 1998. The brand´s expansion outside the Salvadoran territory began in Honduras in the year 2002. Operations in Guatemala began a year later, and in Nicaragua in May 2005. By January 2015, Unicomer Group owned 57 RadioShack stores distributed throughout the Central American region, making it one of the largest independent owners of RadioShack stores in the world.
Since the year 2000, Unicomer Group has been a successful franchise operator for RadioShack. Through these years the brand gained a strong position in the region and has created thousands of new job positions that have served hundreds of thousands of Central American families that rely on its brand value and deferred payment facilities offered by the Group. Unicomer Group has been granted awards for achieving and surpassing guidelines established by the franchisor, such as: Diamond Excellence Award, Platinum Plus Award, Best RadioShack Store Growth Award, and Best Advertising Program.
On April 15, 2015, Unicomer Group acquired brands, intellectual property and contracts of existing RadioShack franchisees throughout Central America, South America and the Caribbean. In the new territories, RadioShack is present in 198 franchises that now become the perfect addition to the group. This will allow Unicomer Group to consolidate and promote the brand with the current franchisees, and will also provide the opportunity to consolidate an expansion strategy in countries where it currently is not present.