The objective is to strengthen its presence in Colombia and abroad. It will expand its plant in the US. The Corona group began the year with an ambitious investment plan to increase capacity in coming years at its new property Colombia and in the United States, as well as to broaden its local and international distribution channels.

According to a report disclosed by BRC Investor Services and information gathered by PORTAFOLIO, the group’s investments add up to 334,268 million pesos. However, including its investments in Homecenter and department stores, where it is a partner of Falabella, total investments in business expansion add up to around 660,000 million pesos.

Last year (excluding Homecenter and Falabella) investments of the main companies of the Corona group totalled 166,000 million pesos.

Between this year and 2009, Colcerámica will invest 315,000 million pesos on a distribution platform at its manufacturing facilities in Sopó (Cundinamarca), on increasing capacity (74,000 million) and a new semi-automatic chrome treatment plant.

The resources for these and other expansions will be raised through debt (151,000 million) and internally-generated resources. Colcerámica expects, as do the other group companies, an improvement in cash flow to service its credit obligations, since it has invested in the expansion of production capacity for construction materials.

On its part, the group’s holding company, Organización Corona, opened a new office in China in order to promote closer links with its suppliers. Even though this Asian country is one of its main competitors, Corona seeks to obtain efficiencies by acquiring products and supplies of higher quality and better prices. It has also created a Shared Services Unit at Colcerámica, which will be joined towards the end of this year by Sumicol, Locería Colombiana, Electroporcelanas Gamma, Almacenes Corona and Sodimac, among other companies.

Meanwhile, Locería Colombiana (chinaware) will invest 11,741 million from 2007 to 2009 thanks to its growing business in the self-service, institutional, tourism and hotel markets. In Mexico, Locería plans to sell products with higher value added through retail chains such as WalMart and Comercial Mexicana. Growth in the US market is sustained by markets such as California, New York, and possibly Las Vegas.

In the medium term, Almacenes Corona will open five new stores, and over the long term it plans to become the largest retailer of bathroom, kitchen and floor remodelling materials in Colombia.

Sodimac, which is 51-percent-owned by Corona, has a plan valued at 107,000 million pesos to increase the number of Homecenter outlets and renew debts.  A facility for this amount is to be disbursed by IFC, a World Bank affiliate.

Falabella Colombia, in which Corona holds a stake of close to 35 percent, has a 5-year, 214,000 million plan to open new department stores in the country.