Continuing your drying processseeking to cut the gas stations less efficient, the At the end of the first half of this year, Ipiranga registered a total of 6,281 establishments building your network. At the end of 2022, the number was 6,771 units and in 2021 the record was 7,104 resellers.
“We were coming from difficult years, with the result below what Ipiranga could generate”, comments the Company CEO Leonardo Linden. This rationalization of actions also reached the AmPm convenience stores. Last year they were 384 of these operations closed, against 141 openings. The executive argues that a store with low sales may not be a problem for Ipiranga in the short term, but it is a difficulty for the reseller and may also be for the distributor in the medium term.
Linden emphasizes that there is a plan to resume growth at Ipiranga, which involves the adoption of regionalized strategies, to better respond to market demand, and rescue the relationship with resellers and the brand. The difficulties faced by the company, such as the volatility of the prices of petroleum derivatives, made its Ebitda (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) fell.
According to CFO of Ultrapar (Ultra Group, which controls Ipiranga), Rodrigo Pizzinatto, in the first half of 2023 the distributor’s Ebitda was R$ 988 million and in the same period last year it was R$ 1.348 billion. This performance also contributed to the result of the Ultra Group as a whole falling from R$2.344 billion to R$1.957 billion in the same period of time.
Despite this, Pizzinatto emphasizes that the tendency is for Ipiranga to recover. In addition to this company, Ultragaz (one of the main players in the national LPG market) and Ultracargo (logistics solutions) are under the umbrella of Grupo Ultra. According to CEO of Ultrapar, Marcos Lutzone of his future ideas is to ess in which areas linked to agribusiness, a segment he considers the most resilient in the Brazilian economy, the group’s companies will be able to increase their performance.
“And if we are talking about a new acquisition, businesses that are exposed to agro will be better seen in our eyes today, which does not prevent us from seeing other things as well”, points out Lutz. One of expectations are regarding the growth of the biofuels segment. It is estimated that soybean production in the country (which can be used in the manufacture of biodiesel) and corn (which can be used in the ethanol chain) will increase from 215.1 million tons in 2018-2019 to 343.2 million tons in 2030 -2031. Lutz, Pizzinatto and Linden participated this Tuesday (5) in the Ultra Day, an event that serves to p on information about the group to investors and analysts.