You are Marta Coutinho, newly appointed CEO of Atlântico Distribuição, Portugal's third-largest grocer. At your first board meeting the Chair tabled €220 million for a three-year transformation and gave you a hundred days to commit to a direction. Before a single euro moves, you have to say what problem the money is meant to solve.
The situation
Atlântico has sold groceries and general merchandise in Portugal since 1981: 240 supermarkets and 18 hypermarkets, 19,000 people, €3.1 billion of revenue in 2025 and a 3.4% operating margin, about €105 million. It holds 14% of the national market, third behind two larger rivals, and an identity built over four decades of caution: gradual openings, consensus, and waiting to see how a trend develops before spending on it.
In the twelve months before your appointment, Atlântico lost 1.1 points of share, squeezed at once by discounters at the value end and by a well-funded quick-commerce entrant at the convenience end. Online is 3% of its sales, against 9–11% at the two leaders, and the channel loses about €18 million a year. On the current trend Atlântico would slip to fourth place in about 30 months, a threshold below which supplier terms are expected to worsen. Net debt cannot exceed 2.5 times EBITDA, and a founding family holds 35% of the shares.
Four ideas have circulated at the board for a year, priced from €40 to €130 million: an omnichannel rebuild, a data and loyalty platform with AI personalisation, a hard-discount banner, and quick-commerce, with a partner or built in-house. €220 million will not fund all four at a scale that matters: split evenly, each gets about €55 million. The board is split, two directors pushing for boldness and two for caution, and the Chair put it this way: "This company has perfected the art of the maybe. We hired you for the power of yes."