Puregold to put up 25 new stores

MANILA, Philippines - Grocery chain Puregold Price Club Inc. is set to continue its rapid expansion program this year as it targets to put up a minimum of 25 new stores nationwide.

The country’s second largest grocer will spend around P3 billion to expand its footprint in the vibrant retail sector, a company official said.

The firm will start operations of at least 25 new branches this year in unserved cities and municipalities nationwide, Puregold’s investor relations chief Jimmy F. P. Perez said.

“The rollout plan stays,” Perez said. The company is now on the second year of its five-year program of setting up a minimum of 25 new stores annually.

Puregold earlier counted close to 500 cities and first-class municipalities nationwide that it can tap for new stores.

In October, Puregold hit the 200-store mark. In the first half alone, the company opened 21 new Puregold and S&R stores, and acquired Company E Corp.’s 15 Eunilaine foodmart and Grocer E supermart branches for P329 million.

For the expansion program, Perez said Puregold allotted around P3 billion this year.

In January to September, last year, Puregold’s profits surged 46.5 percent to P2.64 billion  from P1.8 billion year-on-year on the back of new store openings and acquisitions.

Net sales hit P51.49 billion, up nearly a third from P39.13 billion in the same period the previous year while costs of sales picked up at a slower pace of 29.5 percent to P42.57 billion from P32.87 billion.

The grocery chain owned Lucio and Susan Co last year branched out to Mindanao with the opening of its flagship store in Cagayan de Oro and an S&R Membership Club in Davao.

From just one store in 1998, Puregold has grown to be the closest competitor of grocery giant SM Retail Inc. It targeted to grow its consolidated net sales by 30 percent to roughly P75 billion in 2013 from P57.5 billion a year ago.

Perez said the company is still closing its books for 2013.

The country’s retail sector, in general, is expected to post robust growth this year, an investment bank official said.

Earnings of listed retail and branded consumer firms will grow further this year as demand is intact, said Justino Juan R. Ocampo, senior vice-president of the Metrobank Group’s First Metro Investment Corp. FMIC president Roberto Juanchito Dispo said Philippine-listed companies will continue to do well, particularly those embedded in the consumer sector.

“Demand for Filipino workers overseas will be sustained which will continue to stimulate and increase domestic consumption,” the FMIC executive said.