SM retail network reaches 100 with Bicol mall opening

MANILA, Philippines – SM Investments Corp., the holding firm for the various business interests of retail tycoon Henry Sy, said the number of its nationwide retail network has hit (SMIC) 100 with the opening of a department store and supermarket in Naga, Camarines Sur.

The group’s retail network now consists of 34 SM department stores, 25 SM supermarkets, 14 SaveMore branches, 13 SM hypermarkets and 14 Makro outlets.

SM Naga is the group’s 34th shopping mall and the first in the Bicol region. It has a gross floor area (GFA) of 64,870 square meters.

For the rest of the year, the SM Group will open a department store at the Annex of SM City Rosales, one more department store, one supermarket, eight SaveMore branches and six hypermarkets.

“SM retail’s sustained expansion nationwide fits well with the country’s consistently robust and dynamic consumer sector. Domestic consumer spending, supported to a large extent by remittances from overseas Filipinos, continues to grow. Thus, with the opening of SM’s 100th retail outlet, we intend to further enhance our product and service delivery, for the benefit of the millions of consumers within the SM world,” said SMIC president Harley T. Sy.

Last year, the group opened supermarkets in EDSA Pasay, Parkmall Cebu, Nagtahan, Marikina, Tanay, North EDSA and Cubao.

The total selling area of the SM supermarkets and hypermarkets consist of 256,007 square meters and 142,316 sqm.,respectively.

Slated for opening this year include SM Pamplona in Las Pinas and SM Rosario, Cavite. Sky Garden, an expansion phase of SM North EDSA, is also set to open this year. All these will expand SM’s gross floor area by five percent to 4.5 million sqm from only 4.3 million sqm in end-2008.

In the pipeline are SM Tarlac; SM San Pablo and Calamba in Laguna and SM Commonwealth. Makro, an unlisted company engaged in buying and selling of food and non-food items under warehouse club format, has 14 stores with total leasable space of 107,555 sqm. It was acquired by SMIC in 2007, through its parent holding company, Rappel Holdings Inc.

SMIC’s assets include SM Prime, the largest shopping mall builder in the country; Banco de Oro, the second-biggest lender in the nation by market value; SM Development Corp., which builds residential towers and offices for call centers; and SM Department Stores, the group’s vehicle for grocery operations.