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Stock Commentary

Figaro Coffee presents one new Cebu location as evidence of “ongoing expansion”

Merkado Barkada
Figaro Coffee presents one new Cebu location as evidence of âongoing expansionâ

The fast-food holding company, owned by Jerry Liu through his personal holding company, Camerton Inc., put out a press release yesterday to pump its “ongoing expansion in 2022”.

Figaro Coffee [FCG 0.54 8.47% referred to itself as a “fast-growing local food conglomerate”, but the entire press release only talks about one new Angel’s Pizza location in Cebu (bringing its total locations in Cebu up to three).

At the time of FCG’s IPO in January, the prospectus said that it would use the proceeds of the IPO to open 35 new Angel’s Pizza locations over the next 36 months: an average of approximately one location per month.
 

MB BOTTOM-LINE

Growth is good, and opening new stores is vital for FCG, both from a growth/survival perspective, but also from a “executing the plan we sold to investors” perspective.

There are a few PSE companies that make a big deal out of nearly every new store opening, such as Manny Villar’s AllDay Marts [ALLDY 0.44 6.38%], so there’s certainly room for FCG to celebrate its win through a press release like this.

What gets me, though, is the way the release tries to spin the opening of a single location as evidence of its ongoing expansion.

I mean, sure, technically, opening one location is evidence of expansion. But it’s like the first teeny tiny step on a three-year plan of building over 60 locations across four brands all over the country.

Is one location really evidence of ongoing expansion in that context?

I’d rather hear more about FCG’s hard data on the increase in foot traffic that it mentions so that we could form reasonable expectations about forward earnings, or hear about whether FCG is ahead or behind schedule in its expansion efforts.

It feels petty to even talk about this, but this kind of thing is a problem that I’ve had with this group’s messaging for years. To anyone familiar with Mr. Liu’s other company, Cirtek [TECH 3.14 6.55%]: If you know, you know. 

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Merkado Barkada's opinions are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be considered a recommendation to buy or sell any particular stock. These daily articles are not updated with new information, so each investor must do his or her own due diligence before trading, as the facts and figures in each particular article may have changed.

CIRTEK HOLDINGS PHILIPPINES CORP.

FIGARO COFFEE

PHILIPPINE STOCK EXCHANGE

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