Bibingka chain plans more stores

MANILA, Philippines — Bibingka chain BBK, formerly known as Bibingkinitan, is looking to aggressively expand its network of stores this year, as it targets to open at least a 100 new stores this year.

In an interview with reporters, BBK Group founding chairman and chief executive officer Richard Sanz said the company is aggressive in its expansion efforts this year.

“Our expansion was put on hold during the pandemic. But for this year, we’re opening at least 100 stores,” Sanz said.

With the rebranding of the store to BBK, Sanz said the food chain is focusing on having bigger stores and better product offerings, adding that it is now also offering specialty coffee.

Currently there are 280 BBK stores across the country.

Sanz said most of the new stores to be opened this year will be located outside of Metro Manila. Among these are branches in Bataan, San Pedro, Laguna and Tagaytay.

He said the aggressive store expansion this year is driven by the demand, as well as the reopening of the economy. “There is a demand for specialty products. But as I mentioned, our expansion is targeted outside of Metro Manila because Metro Manila is already a bit saturated,” he said.

Another factor is the relocation of a lot of people to areas outside of Metro Manila as a result of the work from home trend, where companies allow their employees to do remote work.

“But not only that, also the industrialization of the cities outside of Metro Manila is also a big factor,” Sanz said, adding that “we also have seen a lot of increase in spending power in areas such as Pampanga, Clark and Pangasinan. “

He also shared that BBK stores in Laguna, Quezon and Bicol are also doing very well.

Apart from expanding nationwide, Sanz said they are also targeting to reestablish BBK’s presence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and open in other countries as well.

“We used to have three stores in Dubai, but they closed down during the pandemic. So we’re now exploring talks again with other partners in the UAE and also in Qatar,” he said.

“So hopefully within the year, we’ll be able to reestablish our stores outside the Philippines,” Sanz said.