Americanas, formerly Lojas Americanas is a Brazilian retail chain founded in 1929 in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, by the Austrian-Brazilian Max Landesmann and Americans John Lee, Glen Matson, James Marshall and Batson Borger. Currently, the company has 1,945 stores in all 26 Brazilian states and in the Federal District. Lojas Americanas is the sixth largest retailer in Brazil.
Lojas Americanas (Portuguese for American Stores) has its headquarters in Rio de Janeiro and has 4 distribution centers, in Nova Iguaçu (Rio de Janeiro), Barueri (São Paulo), Recife (Pernambuco) and Uberlandia (Minas Gerais).
It is controlled by three Brazilian billionaires: Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Herrmann Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira, the same trio that drives the Anheuser-Busch InBev, 3G Capital, São Carlos S.A. and other groups. The network sells over 80 thousand items of four thousand different companies.
In January 2007, Lojas Americanas acquired the Brazilian operations of the network of video rental Blockbuster for BRL186.2 million and adapted to store the model Americanas Express.
History
The company was founded in 1929 by Americans John Lee, Glen Matson, James Marshall and Batson Borger.[2]