Puregold Price Club has bought five supermarkets in Roxas City, its first move into the Western Visayas.
This takes the group’s nationwide store network to 313. The cost of the acquisitions has not been disclosed.
Puregold has been expanding outside Luzon with construction of its second store in Leyte expected to finish next month.
Metro Retail Sales, Visayas’ largest retailer, has reported a rise in after-tax income of 20.6 per cent to P758.6 million (US$16.4 million) for 2015.
Metro Retail (MRSGI)’s net sales grew 13.9 per cent to P32.5 billion last year from 2014, said the company in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation rose 18 per cent to P1.49 billion in the same period, due to reduced operating expenses.
The company’s same store sales grew by 8.8 per cent on the back of strong performance of its hypermarkets, department stores and supermarkets.
Several milestones for the 33-year old Metro Retail made 2015 an exceptional year for the company. It saw the expansion of its store network nationwide, with 24 supermarkets, 12 hypermarkets and 10 department stores, with a total gross floor area of approximately 400,000 sqm by December 2015.
Said chairman and CEO Frank Gaisano: “2015 has certainly been a banner year for Metro Retail, as our strong financial performance clearly shows. I believe that 2016 will be another record year for Metro Retail, being well on track with our store expansion and logistics efficiency initiatives to support our goal of doubling our footprint in the next five year.”
The company was listed in November 2015, having the largest new equity issuance at P3.6 billion for that year.
Its entry into the local bourse is seen not only to support the company’s expansion plans, but also underscore Metro Retail’s capability to compete with other industry players in serving the value conscious market.
Metro Retail partnered with Ayala Land for the establishment of its stores in four new Ayala commercial developments – a department store and supermarket in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental; a supermarket in Iloilo City; a supermarket in Cebu City; and a department store and supermarket in Pasig City.
Metro Retail also expanded its department store network with the acquisition of the department store assets of SIAL Specialty Retailers, a joint venture between ALI and Stores Specialists in March. Located at Fairview Terraces Mall and the UP Town Center, the stores have a combined gross floor area of approximately 25,000 sqm and will increase Metro Retail’s department store network to 12.
Haier Philippines has announced plans to open its first concept shop in Cebu next quarter.
Randy Esguerra, Haier executive director for the Visayas and Mindanao regions, said the concept shop will be the only one in the country to date.
“We would like to say that this is the growth driver for the Visayas and Mindanao region. This is where the biggest chunk of our sales are being achieved,” Esguerra told the local press.
Cebu accounted for 60 per cent of national sales in 2015, and the company’s most popular brand in the province is Haier Sanyo, he said.
Haier president & CEO Nobuhito Hayashi said 2016 will be another great year for Haier as the company aims for 40 per cent sales growth this year.
“With new product releases and an even stronger company dynamic, we can only expect good things this year,” he said.
In 2015 Euromonitor named Haier as the world’s No. 1 home appliance brand for the seventh year in a row.