GMAT3 Grupo Mateus

Grupo Mateus is a Brazilian company in the food retail and wholesale sector, with common shares traded on B3 under the ticker GMAT3. The company’s history began in 1986, when Ilson Mateus opened a small 50 m² grocery store in Balsas, in the state of Maranhão, after professional experience in other activities. In 1989, the company entered the wholesale segment with the Armazém Mateus brand, seizing regional supply opportunities. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the group structured its operations in Maranhão, expanded its logistics fleet to hundreds of trucks, and consolidated its brand with new stores in key cities in the state and in the capital São Luís, including through the acquisition of commercial points from local competitors.

Business diversification gained momentum starting in 1997, with entry into the home appliance segment through the Eletro Mateus banner. In 2007, Grupo Mateus expanded the verticalization of its food business with the creation of the bakery industry Bumba Meu Pão (now Bumba Alimentos), responsible for producing bread, confectionery, and savory snacks for its network. In the same period, it entered the cash-and-carry format with the brand then called Mix Mateus, consolidating a self-service model focused on bulk purchases. Between 2012 and 2018, the company intensified its expansion outside Maranhão, especially into Pará and other regions of the North and Northeast, opening fresh produce centers, distribution centers, as well as a slicing center in São Luís for standardizing cold cuts and portioned products.

The digital transformation process and strengthening of corporate governance accelerated from 2019 onward. In that year, Grupo Mateus launched the Mateus App, focused on customer loyalty and discounts, and the Mateus Online e-commerce platform, initially aimed at selling non-food products such as appliances, furniture, stationery, personal care products, and beverages. In 2020, the company carried out its initial public offering on B3, listing in the Novo Mercado segment and raising funds through a primary and secondary offering of GMAT3 shares. After the IPO, the group consolidated its digital ecosystem with the launch of the Mateus Mais app in 2021, unifying the previous platforms and reinforcing its omnichannel strategy by integrating the in-store and online shopping experience across its different store formats.

Grupo Mateus’s business model is based on a multi-format, multi-channel platform that combines cash and carry, supermarket and hypermarket retail, B2B wholesale, specialty stores for electronics and furniture, bakery operations, and proprietary financial services. In the B2B wholesale segment, the company operates through independent sales representatives, supplying small and mid-sized retailers, the food service channel, and the group’s own stores, in addition to distributing bakery products under the Bumba Alimentos brand. In food retail, it operates supermarkets, hypermarkets, neighborhood markets, and convenience stores under the Mateus Supermercados, Hiper Mateus, El Camiño, and Armazzém banners, complemented by the Mateus Mais digital channel. In cash and carry, it operates under the Mix Mateus banner, while the electronics segment is served by Eletro Mateus brick-and-mortar stores as well as e-commerce integrated into the digital platform.

Its operating segments are diversified but show a clear predominance of cash and carry in revenue generation. In 2024, cash and carry accounted for 56% of consolidated net revenue, followed by food retail with 23%, B2B wholesale with 17%, and the electronics segment with 3%. The company sells a broad portfolio of food and non-food products, with tens of thousands of SKUs distributed across cash and carry, supermarkets, neighborhood stores, and distribution centers. Among the items sold are perishables such as fruits, vegetables, meats, and dairy products, as well as processed foods, cleaning products, personal hygiene items, stationery, apparel, household goods, electronics, appliances, furniture, and bazaar items. The company also develops private and exclusive labels, with production concentrated mainly in the bakery industry and complemented by lines produced by third parties.

Grupo Mateus’s geographic footprint is concentrated in Brazil’s North and Northeast regions, with a focus on regional food retail and wholesale. As of December 31, 2024, the company operated 272 physical stores in 117 cities across nine states: Maranhão, Pará, Piauí, Ceará, Bahia, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Paraíba, and Sergipe, in addition to a network of distribution centers located in logistics hubs such as São Luís, Davinópolis, Altos, Santa Izabel, Cabo de Santo Agostinho, Marabá, Feira de Santana, São Gonçalo dos Campos, Conde, Maracanaú, Marituba, and Maceió. Its logistics infrastructure included 18 distribution centers, one slicing center, and three bakery plants, with storage capacity of more than 460 thousand square meters and its own and outsourced fleet. This structure supports the daily replenishment of stores and service to more than 45 thousand B2B points of sale in several states in the North and Northeast.

The company’s customer base includes end consumers, the food service channel, and retailers of different sizes. In food retail and cash and carry, Grupo Mateus serves families and individual consumers, as well as restaurants, snack bars, hotels, and other out-of-home food establishments. In traditional wholesale, through independent sales representatives, the company supplies small neighborhood stores, regional retail chains, and convenience stores operated by third parties under the Armazém banner. The B2B wholesale operation gained additional relevance by winning exclusive distribution contracts with major domestic and international consumer goods manufacturers in the North and Northeast regions, reinforcing the group’s role as an important logistics and commercial operator in the local supply chain.

Grupo Mateus’s activities are subject to a comprehensive regulatory framework, which includes labor laws, consumer protection legislation, personal data protection rules, health regulations, and environmental requirements. In the consumer protection sphere, the company must ensure clear information about products and services and comply with restrictions on abusive practices. In the health sphere, the sale of food, cosmetics, hygiene products, and items of animal origin requires specific licenses issued by agencies such as ANVISA, state and municipal health surveillance authorities, and entities linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply, with periodic inspections of the storage, handling, transportation, and display of products. In addition, the installation and operation of stores, distribution centers, and industrial units depend on urban planning permits, operating licenses, authorizations from the fire department, and, when applicable, environmental licenses under the National Environmental Policy.

From an economic and financial perspective, Grupo Mateus ended 2024 with net revenue of more than R$ 32 billion and gross revenue of R$ 36.4 billion, with net income of approximately R$ 1.3 billion and a net margin of around 4.2%. Its recent trajectory combines organic growth, with the opening of dozens of stores per year, and inorganic expansion moves, such as the agreement signed for a business combination with Novo Atacarejo in Pernambuco, Paraíba, and Alagoas, approved by CADE without restrictions and still subject to the fulfillment of contractual conditions for its completion. With the listing of GMAT3 on B3’s Novo Mercado, the company began adopting corporate governance practices aligned with higher standards, together with investments in technology, logistics, and human capital, aiming to support regional expansion and consolidation as one of the largest food retail chains in the country by revenue, according to specialized industry rankings.