LafargeHolcim opened its 1,000th Disensa retail store this past December in Alajuela, Costa Rica. The store is a family-run business with a portfolio of extensive construction materials primarily targeted at masons and self-builders.
Since expanding its Disensa network beyond Ecuador in April 2017, the company has added around 500 Disensa-branded stores in Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico and Nicaragua. LafargeHolcim plans to continue its network expansion by opening its first store in Brazil in early 2018.
Oliver Osswald, region head – Latin America at LafargeHolcim, said: “The roll-out of the Group’s retail strategy in emerging markets such as Latin America is enabling us to get even closer to consumers. The feedback from both our customers and our franchisees has been overwhelmingly positive. This initiative is about increasing the value we bring to our customers by offering them a range of building solutions that go beyond our own cement products.”
The Disensa concept offers self-builders and smaller contractors simple and easy access to LafargeHolcim’s own building solutions as well as a wide range of other construction materials and services, including microcredit and technical help as well as complete kits for different phases of home building. The concept was developed in Ecuador as a franchise scheme where franchisees are able to source thousands of products via a dedicated IT system.
