The story
The first supermarket opened in 1972, in Belo Horizonte. The company becomes then a joint stock corporation with the name of Epa Supermercados, Inc., and enjoyed thereafter a remarkable expansion period.
The company, as of its foundation, has been focused on customers from the economic consumer classes C, D and E. In 1996, it decided that it should operate within another niche market, made up by customers from classes A and B, so the company launched a new brand, Mart Plus.
Early in 2000, a new shareholders group, named WRV Empreendimentos, joined the family that originated the group. DMA Distribuidora Inc. became a stock corporation. With the new entrepreneurs, the company had found a new dynamic, passing from the 21st place to 6th place in 2006, according to the ranking of ABRAS – Brazilian Supermarkets Association.
In 2003, the network, then operating only in Minas Gerais, started its participation in the State of Espírito Santo market.
In 2004, Viabrasil, a compact hypermarket network, was incorporated into DMA.
Currently, DMA Distribuidora Inc. is the largest food retail company in Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo states, both in number of shops and amount of sales invoices.
As for retail companies, DMA Distribuidora is among the largest ten companies in Brazil, according to the ABRAS ranking for 2007, and it is among the largest five with a 100% national stock capital, employing more than 10.500 workers.
From Wikipedia’s article on DMA Distribuidora, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3