Puregold on track of target store additions

MANILA, Philippines - Puregold Price Club Inc., the second biggest supermarket chain in the country, has opened 20 new stores in the first half of the year, well on track to meet its target of 25 new store openings a year.

This brings the company’s total store count to 192 as of end-June this year, or just eight stores short of its 200-store target for 2015 . This includes seven S&R stores as well as the 15 Company E outlets acquired in January.

The group’s high-end retail membership warehouse club, S&R, recently opened a branch in Davao.  This boosted S&R’s active membership base to 280,000 from 250,000 as of end-2012.

The construction of the S&R store along Shaw Blvd. may also be completed by the end of the year, significantly ahead of its original target of end-2014 or 2015.

Given the company’s aggressive expansion, online brokerage house COL Financial expects Puregold’s revenues from store operations to rise 13.2 percent this year to P56 billion.

 â€œAlthough samestore sales growth could remain weak after reaching only 0.4 percent in the first quarter of 2013, the aggressive expansion of its store network should allow it to meet our sales growth target,’ COL Financial said.

Puregold is eyeing a 30 percent growth in sales this year from P57.5 billion in 2012.  It doubled its net profit in the first quarter to P962 million as sales grew 498 percent to P16.09 billion mainly driven by new store openings.

To further strengthen its presence in the industry, Puregold has inked a 50-50 partnership with Ayala Land to jointly develop and operate mid-tier supermarkets for the property giant’s new mixed-use projects.

The supermarket stores will operate under a new brand to be developed by both parties, with the first branch targeted for opening next year.