Fruitas to acquire one food company

MANILA, Philippines — Fruitas Holdings Inc. is acquiring one food company and expects to close the transaction before the end of the year.

This comes after its successful roughly P1 billion initial public offering last month.

In an interview over the weekend, Fruitas founder and CEO Lester Yu said that on top of the soon-to-be acquired company, Fruitas is also looking at two more food companies to acquire in the next few months.

“We are in talks with the companies now,” Yu said.

There could be more than three companies to acquire aside from the initial three, depending on the size and amount of the companies, he said.

In all, the company hopes to use up all the company’s food acquisition budget of roughly P150 million in 2020, depending on the opportunities.

Yu said once the food acquisition budget is maximized, the company could then focus on growing the newly acquired brands.

Fruitas sizzled in its market debut on Nov. 29 in an IPO that was well-received by retail and institutional investors, resulting in an oversubscription of the offering.

The IPO finished at P1.71 per share, up 0.03 percent compared to its IPO price of P1.68 per share and rose to a high of P2.45 per share.

The company has already reached its target of hitting 1,000 stores in the country this year.

As of Nov. 26, Fruitas already has 1,036 stores across the country after opening new kiosks in Metro Manila and key provinces like Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, Tarlac, Zambales, Cebu, Iloilo, Aklan, Davao and Cagayan De Oro.

Fruitas also strengthened its coffee and tea presence with the re-launching of Coffee Talk as part of efforts to continuously make new brands to meet the growing demand of Filipino consumers.

Just recently, Fruitas started to sell some of its bottled fruit juices on open refrigerator shelves inside the supermarkets of Landmark.

Last year, the company ended with 930 stores nationwide. It ended June 2019 with 949 stores, but has since added 87 stores in less than five months.

Proceeds from the IPO will finance the company’s store network expansion and the improvement of existing stores.

Raised funds will also pave the way for the introduction of new concepts and in the acquisition of future brands, commissary expansion and debt repayment.

The company started from a single kiosk stand in SM Manila back in 2002.

After 17 years, Fruitas has become a market leader in the food and beverage kiosk industry with brands such as Fruitas, Sabroso Lechon, Juice Avenue, Black Pearl, and lifestyle food parks like Le Village and Uno Cinquenta.