Grupo Sanborns

Grupo Sanborns is the retail and restaurant arm of Grupo Carso, the Mexican conglomerate associated with Carlos Slim. Its portfolio combines physical retail, food service, consumer electronics, entertainment products, department stores, specialty retail, shopping-center operations, and e-commerce. The group is built around several recognizable formats rather than a single store concept: Sanborns restaurants and junior department stores, Sears department stores in Mexico, iShop Apple-focused electronics stores, Mixup music and video stores, DAX cosmetics and variety stores, Sanborns Café restaurants, and the ClaroShop online marketplace. The Sanborns name serves as the group’s best-known consumer-facing format. Sanborns stores combine a restaurant with merchandise categories traditionally associated with a junior department store, including apparel, beauty, gifts, housewares, electronics, and other general merchandise. Stand-alone Sanborns Café locations extend the food-service presence beyond the full store format. The group also operates Sanborns Home&Fashion locations and DAX stores, which broaden the portfolio into home, fashion, cosmetics, personal care, and variety retail. Sears Mexico is the group’s department-store business and operates separately from the Sanborns-branded stores while remaining part of the same retail portfolio. Its stores provide a broader full-line department-store proposition, covering categories such as apparel, appliances, electronics, home goods, and related merchandise. Grupo Sanborns also operates iShop, an Apple Premium Reseller focused on Apple computers, mobile devices, accessories, and related technology products. Mixup, frequently located alongside iShop, specializes in music, video, and entertainment merchandise and has adapted its retail presence to the changing media market. The group’s portfolio has also included premium and property-related businesses. Grupo Sanborns operated Saks Fifth Avenue stores in Mexico under a franchise arrangement from 2007 until 2023. The Saks locations were in Mexico City, including Centro Santa Fe and, for a period, Plaza Carso. The group chose not to renew the franchise, and the remaining Saks location was closed in 2023 with plans to convert the space to a Sears store. Other operations have included Plaza Loreto and Plaza Inbursa shopping centers, a Sears store in El Salvador, and the ClaroShop e-commerce portal. Several Central American Sanborns stores and other smaller formats were later discontinued. According to figures cited for 2021, Grupo Sanborns generated approximately 53 billion Mexican pesos in sales and operated across 62 metropolitan areas and towns in Mexico. The cited 2020 operating footprint included 197 Sanborns restaurant-and-retail stores and Sanborns Cafés, 141 Mixup and iShop locations, and 97 Sears stores. These figures illustrate the group’s scale and its emphasis on a multi-format, nationwide physical-retail network supplemented by digital commerce. The business is headed by Patricio Slim Domit and remains part of the wider Grupo Carso corporate structure.

Grupo Sanborns is the retailing arm of Grupo Carso and developed as a portfolio of Mexican consumer businesses rather than as a single-format chain. Its central identity comes from Sanborns, a combined restaurant and junior department-store concept that brings food service and general merchandise together in one destination. The model has been supplemented by stand-alone Sanborns Café restaurants and by Sanborns Home&Fashion stores, allowing the group to serve customers through both broad store formats and more focused concepts. Over time, Grupo Sanborns expanded its reach through several specialist and adjacent businesses. DAX added cosmetics, personal care, and variety retail. Mixup created a national music and video store network, while iShop established a technology-focused chain centered on Apple products and accessories. The two brands have often operated beside one another, pairing entertainment retail with premium consumer electronics. This combination reflects the group’s strategy of using multiple complementary formats to attract customers to shopping centers and high-traffic retail locations. The group’s department-store presence is represented by Sears Mexico. Sears operates as a distinct retail banner within the portfolio and provides a full-line, mid-market department-store offer. Grupo Sanborns also operated selected property and digital businesses, including Plaza Loreto, Plaza Inbursa, and the ClaroShop e-commerce portal. A Sears store in El Salvador represented an additional regional presence, although most of the group’s operating footprint has been concentrated in Mexico. Several smaller Central American Sanborns operations and other formats were later closed. Grupo Sanborns entered Mexico’s premium department-store segment through a Saks Fifth Avenue franchise. The first Mexican Saks store opened at Centro Santa Fe in 2007, and another location operated at Plaza Carso in Nuevo Polanco from 2010 until 2020. The Plaza Carso store was subsequently closed, leaving the Centro Santa Fe location as the remaining Mexican Saks operation. In 2023, Grupo Sanborns decided not to renew the franchise, closed the remaining location, and planned to convert it to a Sears store. The decision returned the space to one of the group’s core domestic formats and marked the end of the Saks chapter in its portfolio. By the end of 2020, the group’s reported formats included 197 Sanborns restaurant-and-retail stores and Sanborns Cafés, 141 Mixup and iShop stores, and 97 Sears stores. In 2021, reported sales were approximately 53 billion Mexican pesos, and the network extended across 62 metropolitan areas and towns. These figures describe a substantial national platform built on stores, restaurants, shopping centers, and online retail. Under the leadership of Patricio Slim Domit, Grupo Sanborns continues to operate as part of Grupo Carso, using a multi-brand structure to cover food service, department stores, specialty retail, entertainment, technology, beauty, and e-commerce.

• 2023

  Saks Fifth Avenue franchise ended in Mexico

  [1]Grupo Sanbornsen.wikipedia.org

  Grupo Sanborns did not renew the Saks franchise. The remaining Centro Santa Fe store closed and was planned for conversion into a Sears location.

• 2021

  National scale documented

  [1]Grupo Sanbornsen.wikipedia.org

  Reported figures described approximately 53 billion Mexican pesos in sales and operations across 62 metropolitan areas and towns.

• 2020

  Plaza Carso Saks location closed

  [1]Grupo Sanbornsen.wikipedia.org

  The Saks Fifth Avenue store at Plaza Carso ceased operations, leaving the Centro Santa Fe store as the group’s remaining Saks location in Mexico.

• 2020

  Multi-format operating portfolio reported

  [1]Grupo Sanbornsen.wikipedia.org

  The group’s reported year-end format mix included Sanborns and Sanborns Café, Mixup, iShop, Sears, DAX, Sanborns Home&Fashion, shopping centers, a Sears store in El Salvador, and ClaroShop.

• 2010

  Saks Fifth Avenue expanded to Plaza Carso

  [1]Grupo Sanbornsen.wikipedia.org

  A second Mexican Saks location opened at Plaza Carso in the Nuevo Polanco area of Mexico City.

• 2007

  First Saks Fifth Avenue store opened in Mexico

  [1]Grupo Sanbornsen.wikipedia.org

  Grupo Sanborns began operating Saks Fifth Avenue in Mexico through a franchise arrangement, opening a location at Centro Santa Fe in Mexico City.

A diversified Mexican omnichannel retail and restaurant group combining mass and mid-market department stores, destination restaurants, specialty electronics, entertainment retail, cosmetics, and digital commerce under the Grupo Carso umbrella.

• Restaurant and junior department-store chain

  Sanborns

  Sanborns is the group’s namesake format, combining a restaurant with junior department-store retail. Stores offer food service alongside merchandise such as apparel, beauty products, gifts, housewares, electronics, and other general merchandise. The format functions as both a dining destination and a broad urban retail store.

• Restaurant chain

  Sanborns Café

  Sanborns Café is the stand-alone restaurant expression of the Sanborns brand. It extends the group’s food-service business into locations that do not require the full department-store and restaurant combination, serving as a more focused dining format.

• Department stores

  Sears Mexico

  Sears Mexico is Grupo Sanborns’ full-line department-store business. The banner provides a mid-market assortment spanning apparel, appliances, electronics, home goods, and related general merchandise. After the Saks franchise ended, the group planned to use Sears as the replacement format for the former Saks location at Centro Santa Fe.

• Consumer electronics

  iShop

  iShop is an Apple Premium Reseller chain focused on Apple computers, smartphones, tablets, accessories, and related consumer technology. Its stores are frequently located next to Mixup outlets, creating a complementary electronics and entertainment retail pairing.

• Music and entertainment retail

  Mixup

  Mixup is a Mexican music and video retail chain within the Grupo Sanborns portfolio. Historically centered on recorded music and video products, it commonly operates alongside iShop stores and forms part of the group’s specialty retail network.

• Cosmetics and variety retail

  DAX

  DAX stores specialize in cosmetics, personal-care merchandise, and variety products. The format gives Grupo Sanborns a more focused beauty and convenience-oriented retail presence alongside its department stores and restaurant-led concepts.

• Home and fashion retail

  Sanborns Home&Fashion

  Sanborns Home&Fashion is a specialized format covering home-related and fashion merchandise. It sits within the Sanborns division and provides a narrower retail proposition than the full Sanborns restaurant-and-department-store format.

• Luxury department store · 2007

  Saks Fifth Avenue Mexico

  Saks Fifth Avenue Mexico was operated by Grupo Sanborns under franchise rights. The business had locations at Centro Santa Fe and Plaza Carso in Mexico City, but the Plaza Carso store closed in 2020 and the remaining Centro Santa Fe store closed in 2023 after the franchise was not renewed.

• E-commerce

  ClaroShop

  ClaroShop is the group’s e-commerce portal, extending the portfolio beyond physical stores and providing an online channel for retail merchandise.

• 2023

  End of the Saks Fifth Avenue franchiseStrategy

  Background

  Grupo Sanborns operated Saks Fifth Avenue stores in Mexico from 2007, but by 2023 only the Centro Santa Fe location remained after the Plaza Carso store had closed.

  Action taken

  The group chose not to renew the Saks franchise, closed the remaining store, and planned to convert the site into a Sears department store.

  Aftermath

  The decision ended Grupo Sanborns’ Saks Fifth Avenue operations in Mexico and reinforced Sears as the group’s principal department-store format.

  Source

1. 1Grupo Sanbornsen.wikipedia.org