TBBB: Big, Bold, and more than Branding

In the midst of a challenging consumption environment in Mexico, companies have remained competitive by balancing pricing strategies and strict cost control (Consumer Review Post 3Q25 link here). As expected, consumers continue to trade down, supporting strong momentum for private-label products. Within this context, the hard-discount format has accelerated, and Tiendas 3B stands out through strong store openings and solid SSS performance. We also highlight the significant white-space opportunity ahead —potentially more than 4x the current unit count, and with a segment market share of less than 5% in MX vs 25-35% in other countries—.

TBBB, more than “Bueno, Bonito y Barato” which translates to “Good, Nice and Cheap”. The company’s name underscores its valueoriented positioning in the market, yet we highlight other attributes that can also relate to the company’s name: Big, Bold, and more than Branding. While the white space potential highlights the company’s opportunity, Tiendas 3B is by no means a small retailer: its sales are higher than La Comer’s, and its unit count in Mexico is fairly the same as Walmex’s. This growth is in large part related to the company’s bold strategy of focusing on private label (over 50% sales penetration vs below 20% of most peers) and affordability, limited SKUs (c.800 SKUs, a fraction of the 3,000 SKUs of a typical convenience store or the 10,000+ SKUs of a traditional supermarket), and operating efficiencies. Additionally, the company has successfully demonstrated that a retailer in Mexico doesn’t need to rely on the usual brands to entice Mexican consumers, but a private label with a good value proposition can do the same job, or even best. A Hard Discounter at its best, in a country that we still see as underserved.

Potential risks include competition, low diversification and pricing power, unsuccessful expansion into new regions, increasing labor costs, human capital and real estate risks, low profitability levels that don’t benefit from increasing scale, and SBP-linked dilution.