Colombia’s booming retail sector provides a glimpse of the opportunities available to businesses looking to expand overseas.

There is little global relief for the malaise of the UK’s leading retailer. Tesco’s interim results last month revealed that a dismal domestic performance was compounded by seriously declining sales in Asia and Europe, both edging close to -10%.

In the supposedly worse (or as per Andy Street’s lamentable faux pas last month “sclerotic”) economic environment across the Channel, Tesco’s peers are actually faring not so badly at home and doing immeasurably better abroad; notably in South America where, for the first half of this year, Carrefour reported a like-for-like increase of 14% and Casino organic growth of 11.6%.

They compete strongly with each other in Brazil but in Colombia, following Carrefour’s withdrawal, Casino is in pole position.

The openness of Colombia, together with its far stronger economy, is increasingly putting Brazil in the shade. I’m writing this column from Medellín, a city that has been dramatically transformed from its deathly, drug-ridden past to the Wall Street Journal’s Innovative City of the Year in 2013.

This beautiful, vibrant city is home to a wealth of appropriately innovative Colombian retail brands. Tennis, for example, would rival the best fashion retailers anywhere in Europe or the US; Vélez, equally, in footwear and leather goods; similarly, Leonisa and Touché, two leading lingerie and swimwear brands; and GEF – founded in France but with partners in Colombia for 60 years – that now forms part of the Medellín-based Crystal group.

GEF is redefining street fashion. Not only is it sold and worn on the street, it is being designed and modelled on the street. Outfits are being created by Facebook fans and photographed by students in open air studios. Colours are being selected, city by city, by brand fans who then literally paint their town red – or yellow or blue or any colour of choice. And GEF’s catwalk has moved to the cats’ eyes as models parade in front of drivers stopped at traffic lights.

The supermarket group Éxito, Medellín’s (and Colombia’s) leading retail business is also stopping traffic. Model Alessandra Ambrosio was best known for her work with Victoria’s Secret but is now designing and celebrating Éxito’s private label Arkitect as well. For some time she’s been adorning the city’s hoardings.

Recently, another famous face has been putting in a similarly prominent appearance. Following his triumphs in the World Cup, Colombia’s golden football boy James Rodriguez was snapped up by Éxito (which aptly means ‘Success’) to create and model a range for its underwear brand Bronzini.

Éxito’s parent company Casino, of course, is headquartered in France, a market that Tesco entered in 1992 (through its acquisition of Catteau) but then abandoned five years later.

Tesco’s corporate woes have turned the spotlight away from its much more recent international failure with the Fresh & Easy brand but it will be haunted a long while yet by the expensive débâcle of this venture into the US. Maybe it simply chose the wrong America.

  • Michael Poynor, founder & managing director, Retail Expertise