40% of Sri Lanka's Retail Outlets Damaged Due to Tsunami Resume Business

Assessment of damage to retail outlets in the Southern & Western provinces reveals a total of 1,712 outlets affected

12.2% of outlets within the Southern province remain closed for business, Grocery stores hit the hardest

15 March 2005
Sri Lanka

The damage caused to retail outlets in Sri Lanka due to the Tsunami has been restricted to 5% of the universe of outlets within the Southern and Western provinces stocking branded, packaged products. These are the findings of a retail census conducted across affected areas by ACNielsen, the global leader in market research, information and analysis.

“As the global experts in retail measurement ACNielsen is committed to the growth, focus and rehabilitation of Sri Lanka’s FMCG industry. In our study, we focused on the Southern and Western provinces.. Our study reveals that a total of 2,968 outlets were affected, located mainly in urban areas” explained Dwight Watson, Managing Director, ACNielsen Sri Lanka.

40% of outlets damaged were back in business, with Galle showing a high percentage of 41% of its outlets completely damaged. The Hambantota district saw 7% of its outlets washed away by the tsunami. Cigarettes/Soft drink and Eating / drinking outlets recorded the highest totally damaged by channel.

Province-wise Impact felt most in Urban areas within Southern and Western provinces
Amongst the provinces urban areas, along the coastal belt of the Southern and Western regions have been the most impacted. 1,532 outlets or 28% of outlets in the Southern province and 180 outlets or 1% of outlets in the Western province were affected.

Table 1: Number of outlets affected

Source: ACNielsen RMS Retail Census

Comparing the total outlets affected with the total All Commodity Value (ACV) reveals that 29% of outlets in the southern province (representing 33% of ACV) have been affected. In the western province, 0.6% of outlets (representing 0.2% of ACV) have been impacted adversely.

Table 2: Percentage of outlets in Southern and Western affected by Tsunami

Source: ACNielsen RMS Retail Census

Status of Outlets Affected in the Southern Province
Of the 29% ‘total affected outlets’ within the Southern province, 5% have suffered complete structural damage and will need to be relocated since they fall within the 100 metre radius. These outlets contributed 3.2% ACV to the province. 12.2% of the outlets (contributing 14% to the southern province ACV) have been damaged fully / partially and remain closed for business. While 11.7% of outlets (contributing a 14% ACV to the province) were damaged but have re-opened for business. “These trends suggest that Sri Lanka’s retailers are resilient and are combating difficulties successfully” said Mr.Watson.

Table 3: Status of damaged outlets in Southern province

Source: ACNielsen RMS Retail Census

A district-wise analysis of the impact on outlets in the southern province shows that among those outlets classified as suffering ‘complete structural damaged’ a large percentage of outlets were located within the Galle district. Hambantota was next in this segment with 29.7%, and Matara with 29.3% .

In the ‘damaged fully / partially and remain closed for business’ segment, Galle had a very high percentage of such outlets located within the district (70.5%), Matara (17.7%), and Hambantota (11.8%). In the ‘damaged but back to business’ segment, once again Galle district had the highest percentage of such outlets with a 49.6%, Matara 41.4% and Hambantota 9%. The total number of retail outlets not affected by the tsunami in this province was 3,778.

Table 4: Distribution of affected outlets across districts in the Southern Province

Source: ACNielsen RMS Retail Census

District-wise analysis of affected outlets within the Southern Province
In the Galle district 34% of its retail outlets were affected in some way by the tsunami with 12% of these already back in business. These outlets contributed 44.5% to the districts - All Commodity Value. The Hambantota district had 19% of its retail outlets affected by the tsunami which contributed a 13.4% ACV, of these 7% (contributing a 4% ACV to the district) were completely destroyed. The Matara district saw a 27 % (contributing a total of 29.3% ACV to the district) being affected in some way by the tsunami.

Table 5: District-wise analysis of affected outlets in the Southern Province

Source: ACNielsen RMS Retail Census

Impact on channels within the Southern Province
The Cigarette/Soft drink channel took the brunt of the tsunami with 9% of its outlets (contributing a 5% ACV to the district) completely damaged. 16.6% of outlets within this channel were damaged and remain closed for business. Another 15.6% of these outlets though damaged, had resumed business. The next channel to be hit the hardest was the ‘Eating / Drinking channel’ that had a 6.5% of total stores damaged. Additionally, 13.2% damaged and closed while 10.4% were damaged but able to resume business. Groceries saw 4.5% outlets totally damaged and beyond repair, while 9.5% were damaged but closed. 8.7% of groceries were damaged but had restarted operations.

Table 6: Channel wise impact within Southern Province

% Outlets

% ACV Contribution

Source: ACNielsen RMS Retail

In the ‘totally damaged’ segment within the southern province, grocery shops were the worst hit with a high 41% (contributing a 36% ACV), Eating / drinking and Cigarette/ Soft Drink channels coming in second and third with 28% and 10% being completely destroyed respectively. Cosmetic outlets to were significantly affected with almost an 8% of outlets within this channel being destroyed. From within the retail channels affected the Cigarette/Soft Drink outlets was seen as the highest ACV contributor to the province from those that were affected.. In the ‘damaged /closed segment grocers (35%), eating/drinking (23%) and cosmetic (15%) outlets were the worst affected . Encouragingly, these channel types have bounced back again, with the damaged/open segment showing 34% groceries, 19% eating/drinking and 17% cosmetic channel types back in business.

Table 7: Channel wise damage to outlets in the Southern Province

Source: ACNielsen RMS Retail

In closing Mr Watson noted, ‘At the overall level, the affect of the tsunami on retail outlets within the southern and western provinces were not as bad as envisaged earlier and it would appear that retail outlets within these provinces are well on their way to recovery.’

ACNielsen Retail Index Coverage
In Sri Lanka the ACNielsen Retail Index is based on monthly All Island coverage (excluding the North and Eastern provinces), from the panel of Traditional Trade outlets ( Grocery Shopping, Eating Drinking, Chemist, Cosmetics etc).

About ACNielsen
ACNielsen, a VNU business, is the world's leading marketing information provider. Offering services in more than 100 countries, the unit provides measurement and analysis of marketplace dynamics and consumer attitudes and behaviour. Clients rely on ACNielsen's market research, proprietary products, analytical tools and professional service to understand competitive performance, to uncover new opportunities and to raise the profitability of their marketing and sales campaigns.

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