MerryMart to acquire Mindanao-based pharmacy

MANILA, Philippines — Property tycoon Edgar “Injap” Sia II is expanding his group’s footprint in the pharmaceuticals sector.

His supermarket chain MerryMart Consumer Corp. signed an agreement with ZC Ramthel Corp. to acquire a majority stake in Mindanao-based Cecile’s Pharmacy, a 57-year-old pharmacy chain which is the biggest in Zamboanga.

This comes days after MerryMart completed its acquisition of Carlos Drugs-Lucena Inc., a Lucena-based drugstore chain.

There are only very few drug store chains in the Philippines that have been operational for decades and still remain to be the market leader and the top-of-mind brand in their respective market region, said Sia.

“Cecile’s Pharmacy chain is one of that select groups that stood the test of time and we believe this acquisition will add great value to the MerryMart Group’s ecosystem,” he said.

MerryMart will acquire a minimum post-investment stake of 51 percent of Cecile’s Pharmacy, which has 21 strategically located operating branches to date, with over 300 workforce.

The current management team of Cecile’s Pharmacy chain will continue to run the operations of the company in tandem with the MerryMart team.

MerryMart CFO Hannah Yulo-Luccini said the acquisition would enhance MerryMart’s trade volume in the pharmacy and prescription drug items.

“This transaction will also bring significant improvement on cost efficiencies as MerryMart continues to strive to deliver better value to its customers and stakeholders,” she said.

MerryMart will continue to keep its eyes open for M&A opportunities in both the grocery and pharmacy space, which will accelerate its growth to capitalize on the continued consolidation from traditional to modern retail in the Philippines.

Its different formats at present are MerryMart Store, MerryMart Market, MerryMart Grocery, MerryMart Wholesale and Dark Groceries.

MerryMart recently formed a new subsidiary MM Consumer Technologies Corp with MBOX Smart Lockers as the first in its consumer technology portfolio that is expected to add and complement to the ecosystem of the MerryMart Group.

The Sia-led grocery chain has set its Vision 2030, with the goal of having 1,200 branches nationwide as it targets to generate P120 billion in systemwide recurring consumer sales revenue.