Puregold plans to go nationwide next year

MANILA, Philippines -  Lucio Co’s Puregold Price Club Inc. is going nationwide next year, even as it announced that it is proceeding with its initial public offering (IPO) later this year.

The company also revealed that it plans to add more than 30 branches this year as a result of its robust performance in Luzon

Puregold director Vincent Co said the supermarket chain operator will end the year with about 100 Puregold branches all over Luzon.

“We would like to expand further in Luzon, the market is still big,” Co said, adding that Puregold is only widely present in Central Luzon.

Currently, Puregold has 64 branches, of which, 44 are hypermarkets, 17 are junior branches and four are extra store branches.

All its stores are located in Central Luzon while 40 are in the National Capital Region. Its northernmost branch is in Laoag while the southernmost store is in Batangas.

“We plan to open up branches in Visayas and Mindanao maybe next year,” Co said.

He said the planned P11.2-billion IPO will help further expand its reach in other areas outside the Metro Manila.

Puregold’s IPO was originally scheduled this month but was deferred to the second half due to the current market conditions.

As earlier reported, the Filipino grocer plans to offer a maximum of 700 million common shares for up to P16 each. It said it planned to use the proceeds from the offering to expand its store network.

The offer shares comprise about 36 percent of the company’s total outstanding stock.

Puregold, owned by Filipino-Chinese businessman Lucio Co, has appointed HSBC Ltd. as international lead underwriter and BDO Capital as domestic lead manager.

The company expects net proceeds from the sale of the shares, net of the underwriting fees and expenses, to reach about P7.61 billion.

Meanwhile, Puregold partnered with Globe Telecom for point-of-sale reloading which allows Globe and TM subscribers to buy prepaid load from any Puregold checkout counter. Customers can load from P10 to P150 on their mobile phones.

Puregold is the first warehouse store format to launch the loading service via POS.

Ferdinand dela Cruz, Globe head of consumer wireless business group, said over 90 percent of reloading transactions are made through electronic-load and the rest are through prepaid cards.

“Our retailers are predominantly sari-sari stores which comprise about 90 percent of our retailer network,” he said, adding that Globe now has over 800,000 retailers nationwide. – Zinnia dela Peña