Injap Sia’s MerryMart convenience store inks first franchise, eyes 1,200 branches

MANILA, Philippines — Property tycoon Injap Sia II’s MerryMart Grocery Centers Inc. signed its first franchise deal as part of efforts to put up 1,200 branches and generate P120 billion in systemwide revenues by 2030.

The revenue will come from MerryMart’s different formats — MerryMart Grocery, MerryMart Market and MerryMart Store.

The first franchise MerryMart Store will be located beside Mang Inasal in Mambusao Sigma road in Capiz province.

Sia said the first franchisee of MerryMart is also the first franchisee of Sia’s Mang Inasal, the chicken barbeque chain he founded but was later acquired by Jollibee Foods Corp.

MerryMart’s first franchisee is entrepreneur Arturo Oñas.

“I applied for a Mang Inasal franchise early on about 12 years ago and became the first franchisee of Mang Inasal. Now, I operate a chain of 23 Mang Inasal franchise stores, and I hope to also grow my MerryMart franchise in the years to come,” he said.

Sia said DoubleDragon Corp. has expertise in franchising and is familiar with the Philippine consumer market.

“We would like to take advantage of our group’s know-how in franchising, and our familiarity of the Philippine market terrain,” Sia said.

He noted that his group has successfully rolled out Mang Inasal, CityMall, Hotel101 and CentralHub network.

MerryMart Store is the household essential store format of the MerryMart Group.

It combines the mini grocery, pharmacy, health and beauty lines with average store size of about 250 square meters.

The 3-in-1 innovation and expansion through franchising is expected to bring in operational efficiencies and enable MerryMart to rapidly scale up and build up durable competitive advantage. Franchising also creates business opportunities for many budding entrepreneurs.

In preparation for its rapid growth, MerryMart will also soon be available in both online and offline channels.

The company expects to set up several MerryMart warehouses and distribution centers to support the MerryMart retail shops around the country and intends to locate these in DoubleDragon’s CentralHub warehouse complexes.

The first MerryMart logistics distribution center is scheduled to start the operation next month. The first MerryMart opened last April at the ground floor of DoubleDragon Plaza, DD Meridian Park, Bay Area, Metro Manila.

At present, there are already seven MerryMart branches under construction. The next MerryMart is set to open at the ground floor of the new Ayala Mall-Manila Bay.