Our History

The Pelegrino couple José Donato and Luiza Trajano Donato opens a small gift shop in Franca (SP).

With the acquisition of Mercantil Stores, Magazine Luiza opened the first stores in cities in the interior of São Paulo state.

Begins expansion into cities of Minas Gerais (Triângulo Mineiro).

Cycle: New Cycle

Luiza Helena Trajano, niece of the founder Luiza Trajano Donato, is nominated president.

Virtual stores are opened in a new concept.

New marketing and commercial campaign is developed “Liquidação Fantástica” (Mega sale) .

New marketing and commercial campaign is developed “Só Amanhã” (Until Tomorrow).

The chain opens stores in the states of Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul.

The e-commerce website is launched www.magazineluiza.com.br

Magazine Luiza and Itaú Unibanco sign a 50/50 JV agreement to set up Luizacred, the consumer credit financing arm. We bought Wanel chain of Sorocaba (SP state).

Cycle: Sustainable growth cycle is launched by new president

Acquisition of Leader chain, in the region of Campinas (SP). Magazine Luiza receives the award of best company to work for in Brazil - the first retailer in the world to receive this title by Great Place to Work.

Arno chain is acquired in Rio Grande do Sul.

Luizaseg is set up in a 50/50 partnership with Cardif Company BNP Paribas Group. Acquisition of Base, Kilar and Madol chains, in the states of Santa Catarina, Paraná and Rio Grande do Sul. Implementation of Luiza TV, Radio Luiza and Luiza Portal.

46 stores are opened simultaneously on the same day in the city of São Paulo, and more than 1 million new customers are signed in.

Arrival in the Northeast, with the acquisition of “Lojas Maia” chain, with 136 stores.

Initial Public Offering (IPO), when the company is taking public and lists its MGLU3 shares on the BM&FBovespa (now B3). The company acquires the chain “Baú da Felicidade” to strengthen its positioning in the Southeast.

Company launches Chip Luiza, which offers free access to social networks, aimed at low-income customers.

Magazine Luiza acquires Época Cosméticos, beauty e-commerce.

The nine distribution centers are integrated and now offer faster delivery and lower freight costs. The company sponsors the World Soccer Cup in Brazil, on Globo television. Luizalabs is created.

Cycle: Digital Transformation. Launch of the new version of Magazine Luiza App for mobile. Implementation of Mobile Sales in 180 stores, Cycle of new digital transformation begins.

Magazine Luiza is the publicly-held company with the world’s highest-priced stock. Salesmen use smartphones through the app Mobile Vendas. The marketplace platform is rolled out, nearly 50 partners now sell their products inside the Magazine Luiza website

Magazine Luiza leads the Bovespa’s ranking for another year. The company conducts a follow-on and raises R$1.8 billion. The magazine “Isto É Dinheiro” nominates Mr. Frederico Trajano the best entrepreneur of the year. Magazine Luiza’s reality show, the “Missão Digital” (Digital Mission), debuts at Globo TV network aiming at assisting small entrepreneurs to become digital. Magazine Luiza creates its whistleblowing channel. Magazine Luiza acquires IntegraCommerce and its innovation laboratory reaches over 450 engineers and experts who endeavor to make Magazine Luiza’s operation increasingly more digital.

Magazine Luiza becomes Magalu. The Company acquired the logistics startup Logbee. The 7x1 “Sai Zica” campaign was one of the Brazilian marketing highlights and Magalu is the company that most sold TVs for Brazilians watching the World Cup. The "Eu Meto a Colher, sim" campaign is launched. The US magazine Fast Company nominates Magalu one of Brazil’s most innovative companies. The Magalu app is one of Brazil’s most successful shopping apps, with 26 million downloads, with a 40% share of the Company’s online orders.

Magalu acquires Netshoes, Brazil’s largest sports e-commerce, and, in the physical world, it inaugurates its store No. 1,000. Magalu holds another follow-on and raises R$4 billion. During Black Friday, it hosts a live TV show, the "Black das Blacks". Magalu brand is one of the top 30 most valuable brands in the country. The event Expo Magalu debuts for sellers, gathering thousands of people in the city of São Paulo. The company enters into the market of the state of Pará. The magazine Valor Econômico nominates Mr. Frederico Trajano the executive of the year.

Magalu in early 2020 acquired the book marketplace, Estante Virtual. Amid the social distancing constraints inflicted by the Covid-19 pandemic, Magalu ramped up its digitalization process, and advanced its multichannel with the Ship From Store, thus, expediting delivery to end customer. Marketplace sellers could take advantage of Parceiro Magalu and sell online, even though brick-and-mortar stores were temporarily closed. Financially speaking, we launched the MagaluPay as a new functionality of this super app. The rollout of Magalu Pagamentos offers the anticipation of receivables for sellers. These acquisitions were a milestone for Magalu in 2020, and its ecosystem was complemented by Hub Sales, Canaltech, Inloco Media, GFL, Sinclog, Stoq, AiqFome, ComSchool, and Hub Fintech. The New Categories was one of the most outstanding strategic drivers, including groceries and consumer goods as the category with the largest number of items sold, contributing to increasing customers’ shopping frequency. We also took an important step in repairing a historic debt that Magalu had as a company and launched the first trainee program for people of African descent.

The year of #YouBlinkedItArrived for Magalu began with a second wave of Covid-19 even stronger than the first. Again, the doors to the physical world closed. Under this scenario, e-commerce growth continued to accelerate. In yet another challenging period, the company surpassed the market and reached the largest market share in the Company’s history. The acquisitions were a milestone for Magalu, and its ecosystem was complemented VipCommerce, Steal The Look, Tonolucro, Grandchef, SmartHint, Jovem Nerd, Bit55, Plus Delivery, Juni, Sode and the largest acquisition in our history, KaBuM!, one of the the leading online sellers of computer, games, components and accessories in brazil. In July, we opened our first physical stores in the State of Rio de Janeiro, marking our entry into the second largest consumer market in Brazil and completed a successful follow-on offering raising almost R$4 billion in equity financing, 100% primary.

2022 began with the one-two punch of rising interest rates and high inflation. There was the unprecedented speed with which the macroeconomic scenario shifted, but we realize the gravity of the situation and react. By making hard decisions quickly, we were able to mitigate the damage, this year was about Magalu’s monetization (“Monetiza Magalu”). During the first half, we made important adjustments to our operation. We improved the gross margin by reducing freight subsidies and increasing the marketplace take-rate (accelerating the growth of service revenues); we radically reduced expenses (mainly marketing and logistics) and reduced inventories significantly. Though our primary focus was on expanding margins and implementing a lighter structure, we managed to accelerate growth and market share gains, especially during the last quarter of the year, which was characterized by strong growth across all channels and the Company’s excellent sales performance during the quarter was primarily driven by Magalu’s assertive commercial and marketing strategy, including sponsorship of the World Cup. We launched our fulfillment operation which takes place in the same distribution centers used by the Company’s 1P operation. Going forward, we believe that growth will be accompanied by profitability. In this context, our unique model which combines digital, multichannel and hyperlocal, stands out.

In 2023, we faced the challenge of reintroducing DIFAL in interstate purchases, especially in e-commerce, requiring agile responses to mitigate its financial impact. Magalu, maintaining its commitment to excellence in service and healthy margins, focused on increasing operational efficiency. Through optimized processes, we gradually passed on the DIFAL to final prices without compromising sales volume, resulting in improvements in sales indicators and operational margin. Amid a challenging macroeconomic scenario, we continued to reconcile short-term initiatives with a long-term strategy focused on marketplace expansion. With a promising environment marked by rising income and falling interest rates, we maintain optimism for the future, prioritizing the growth of operating profit, net profit, and cash generation, while building a consistent organization in results, delighting the customer, and promoting inclusion. In December 2023, we also launched Magalu Cloud, our public cloud service. Magalu Cloud was developed to meet the needs of Brazilian companies – especially small and medium-sized ones, which often face cost barriers to digitization. The idea is to offer affordable costs and reliability, with billing in Brazilian reais and support in Portuguese. Magalu Cloud is already available to dozens of partners, offering a wide range of cloud services, including computing, storage, networking, databases, and artificial intelligence.