Metro Retail Stores Group Inc., a company controlled by the Gaisano family that recently raised P3.62 billion in fresh capital from an initial public offering, plans to double its retail business by opening 50 to 70 stores over the next five years, a top executive said Tuesday.
Metro Retail chairman and chief executive Frank Gaisano said in an interview after the company’s listing with the Philippine Stock Exchange the company was ready to compete with other retail players and had mapped out plans to maintain its position as the largest retailer in the Visayas.
Share price of Metro Retail opened higher by 7.7 percent from the IPO price of P3.99, but lost steam toward the latter part of trading to close at P4 Tuesday.
Metro Retail has 400,000 square meters of gross floor area across 46 stores, mostly in the Visayas.
“We are ready to compete with other industry players in serving our value-conscious market and be a leading and well admired retailer,” Gaisano said.
Gaisano said Metro Retail had a district growth trajectory, expanding from Cebu to other areas of the country.
“In the industry we often said that Cebu is the toughest market where both local and Luzon-based national players are represented. If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere,” Gaisano said.
The company’s aggressive expansion plan, however, is still focused towards the Visayas which still had many underserved areas, he said.
Metro Retail is also looking at mergers and acquisitions to accelerate growth and plans to venture in Mindanao by 2017 or 2018.
Metro Retail vice president for business development Joseph Conrad Balatbat said that in terms of retail format, the company would prioritize hypermarkets.
“We feel that majority of the towns in Visayas cannot absorb a full-blown department store. So building hypermarkets will be a good strategy for these areas,” Balatbat said.
The company said it secured 30 sites for expansion plans across the country over the next three years, which would be funded by proceeds from the IPO.
Balatbat said the company would open seven stores next year. The company plans to accelerate store openings by 10 to 12 stores annually, starting 2017.
Metro Retail is only the third company to be listed with PSE this year. The first two were Crown Asia Chemicals Corp. and SBS Philippines Corp.
The PSE earlier targeted to have 10 IPOs in 2015.
