Exito Supermarket: a Colombian Success Story

Exito supermarkets are a success story that Colombia prides itself on. From a small shop of barely 16 square meters in downtown Medellin, Almacenes Exito (Success Warehouses) have become one of the country’s leading supermarket chains and has even managed to expand internationally, to Argentina and Uruguay.

Exito’s humble beginnings

The company was launched 75 years ago, on March 26, 1949, in Medellin, through the opening of a small textile sales outlet. In 1960 its founder Gustavo Toro Quintero, ventured to put a new retail concept into practice by opening a self-service store. Thanks to its rapid success, the company expanded and managed to open a 10,000-square-meter supermarket in 1970, as well as another store in the El Poblado neighborhood. On its forty-first anniversary, Exito expanded for the first time outside of Medellin by opening a supermarket in Bogota, and from there, it spread to the rest of the country, notably to Cali in 1997.

The leading Colombian supermarket

Today, Exito is one of the largest supermarket chains in Colombia, with 260 outlets spread across 69 cities. However, the supermarket has grown far beyond its initial scope and now represents a distribution group with numerous subsidiaries in addition to its historic brand, Almacenes Exito. Supermarkets Carulla, Viva shopping centers, and Surtamayorista warehouses are all subsidiaries of the Exito group. In total, the group has 515 points of sale and 35,000 employees throughout Colombia, making it the largest employer in the retail sector.

The international success of Exito supermarkets

Following its initial expansion in 1997, the Exito Group gained an international dimension. That same year, the group expanded into Argentina and Uruguay through the acquisition of local distribution groups. Gradually, the group became international; in 2007, it was acquired by the French-origin global giant, Casino, and then, in 2023, the group secured its stock market listing in Brazil and the United States. Marking the transnational dimension the company has achieved since its modest beginnings in Medellin, on March 21, 2024, Exito Group announced the appointment of Salvadoran Carlos Calleja Hakker as president of the group, following its acquisition by his group, the Salvadoran retail giant Grupo Calleja.