MANILA, Philippines — Home improvement and construction supplies retailer Wilcon Depot Inc. plans to put up more stores this year, while also improving some of its legacy stores to cater to its customers’ evolving needs.
Wilcon senior executive vice president and coo Rosemarie Bosch-Ong said the company is bullish on its outlook for this year after achieving its 100th-store milestone a year ahead of its 2025 target.
“We have nowhere to go but grow and grow. However, we don’t have control of the external factors. We see improvements in all the headwinds that have been happening in the past year so hopefully this year will be a better year for us,” she said.
While the number of stores to be opened this year is still being finalized, Bosch-Ong said Wilcon would continue to grow its network.
The company is also setting its sights on accelerating the growth of its smaller store formats to making its offerings even more accessible to underserved areas.
“We already reached our 100th-store milestone. We will still continue to expand because we see opportunities still in areas where we are not present and we all know that housing and home improvement are very basic. So if there is the American dream, there’s the Filipino dream of having their own houses,” Bosch-Ong said.
“As we go closer to communities, we want to be accessible. But as we go out now, it is becoming smaller and smaller, the size of the stores,” she said.
Aside from adding more branches, Wilcon is also improving its legacy stores.
“Wilcon is already 48 years so we have a lot of legacy stores. What we’re doing now is improve the legacy stores because it’s very hard to catch up, especially the old stores,” Bosch-Ong said.
“If you look at the new stores, it’s always a better version. So our focus now is to renovate and make it more adaptive to consumer behavior . How we can make their shopping experience more seamless, more convenient and more comfortable,” she said.
According to Bosch-Ong, more than half of Wilcon’s current network are considered as legacy stores.
“Of course we cannot do it all at the same time (the renovations), it has to be phased,” she said.
Wilcon started in 1977 with its first store in Quezon Avenue.
In December last year, the company opened its 100th store in Lubao, Pampanga.
The company said that the milestone reinforces its commitment to providing top-notch home improvement and building solutions to even more Filipino communities nationwide.
From January to September last year, Wilcon reported a 22.3 percent drop in net income to P2.1 billion as sales declined by one percent year-on-year to P25.7 billion.
The company saw persisting softness of the demand for major home improvement and finishing construction supply through the third quarter, with the incessant rains and bad weather affecting construction projects.