On April 15, 2015, Unicomer Group acquired brands, intellectual property and contracts of existing RadioShack franchisees throughout Central America, South America and the Caribbean. In the new territories, RadioShack is present in 198 franchises that now become the perfect addition to the group. This will allow Unicomer Group to consolidate and promote the brand with the current franchisees, and will also give us the opportunity to consolidate our expansion strategy in countries where it currently is not present.
The shareholders of UNICOMER GROUP initially acquired a RadioShack franchise in El Salvador in January 1998. The brand´s expansion outside the Salvadoran territory began in Honduras in the year 2002. Operations in Guatemala began a year later, and in Nicaragua in May 2005. By January 2015, UNICOMER GROUP owned 57 RadioShack stores distributed throughout the Central American region, making it one of the largest independent owners of RadioShack stores in the world.
RadioShack was conceived to be a North American store type. It sells electronic components and accessories, security devices, radio communication equipment, telephones, calculators, computers, car accessories, audio and video, and every state of the art technological gadget.
For more than 17 years, Unicomer Group has been a successful franchise operator for RadioShack. Through these years the brand gained a strong position in the region and has created thousands of new job positions that have served hundreds of thousands of Central American families that rely on its brand value and deferred payment facilities offered by the Group. Unicomer Group has been granted awards for achieving and surpassing guidelines established by the franchisor, such as: Diamond Excellence Award, Platinum Plus Award, Best RadioShack Store Growth Award, and Best Advertising Program.
“This acquisition is the perfect complement to our expansion strategy in the Caribbean, South America and Central America, as we have been operating the RadioShack franchise in Central America for more than 17 years. Constantly innovating its image, advertising and stores in order to create a differentiated customer experience with the latest technologies.” explained Mario Siman, Chairman and CEO of the Unicomer Group.
For this transaction, Capital Financial Advisors, based in Costa Rica, acted as Unicomer Group’s exclusive financial advisor, while Arias & Muñoz, based in El Salvador, acted as the main legal advisor and support signatures coordinator in the United Stated, Latin American and Caribbean regions.
This purchase allows Unicomer Group to solidify its position as a leading regional retailer in 20 countries with more than 875 stores, 14,000 associates and 3.5 million square feet of sales area, now adding 198 new RadioShack stores to these totals.
