The news was confirmed to La Nación by CSU president Rodrigo Uribe, who explained that the expansion project represents a $20-million investment.
The Todos chain owns five supermarkets in Honduras and, according to Uribe, the negotiations ``are progressing and on the right track.''
In Costa Rica, CSU is the owner of the Más X Menos, Rayo Azul and Palí supermarkets.
Regarding the expansion of the Palí supermarkets, Uribe said they will open four to five stores in Nicaragua, in addition to the three already operating there. The Group expects to open an additional supermarket a month for the remaining of 1998.
Three Palí supermarkets are to open in Honduras in August and then, just like in Nicaragua, another new store will open there monthly.
Uribe said that even though they are analyzing the other Central American nations, definite plans have been drafted only for Nicaragua and Honduras for the time being.
Currently 300 people work in the Nicaraguan Palís and another 200 will be hired in the remaining part of the year. In Honduras, 100 workers will be hired this year. In Costa Rica, the CSU has 5,000 employees.
Elsewhere
The Dominican Republic is also in the sights of CSU, but no definite project has been drafted for that Caribbean nation, Uribe admitted.
The investment elsewhere in Central America, he explained, is designed in such a way that within five years only 25 percent of CSU's overall income will be from Costa Rica and the remaining 75 percent from abroad.
``We have to be present in all of Central America, but in order to decide on new markets we must first choose very carefully. We want the supermarkets that we open anywhere to have their own growth capacity,'' Uribe explained.
About local projects, the executive mentioned a Palí in Escazú and another in Heredia, and the coming operation of a Rayo Azul supermarket in Limón.
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