SM expands retail footprint to Palawan

SM Investments Corporation has further expanded its retail footprint nationwide with its new stores opening together with SM City Puerto Princesa in Palawan last September 15.

The firm launched its anchor retail brands in Puerto Princesa, one of the country’s main tourist destinations and voted as one of the best islands in the world by travel magazine Travel + Leisure.

These included THE SM STORE, SM Supermarket and SM Appliance Center; as well as specialty brands Ace Hardware and Watsons with a combined floor area of over 15,000 square meters.

“SM’s maiden property and retail ventures in Palawan open opportunities for us to cater to an underserved tourist market,” SM Investments Corp. President Frederic DyBuncio said.

He added that, “under the government’s expansionary strategy, there is increased focus on regional development. This supports our overall strategy to further expand and cover as many provinces in the country to provide access to the best retail options to consumers.”

The additional retail brands add to SM Retail’s total of 2,357 as at endJune 2017. This comprises 58 THE SM STORES, 1,709 specialty stores, 50 SM Supermarkets, 44 SM Hypermarkets, 170 Savemore stores, 41 WalterMart stores and 285 Alfamart stores as of the given period.

“SM’s diversified retail business allows greater synergies with SM Prime’s own diverse product offerings and integrated developments. SM Retail is given room to further gain a foothold in the regions and further expand with each property expansion,” said SM Senior Vice President for Investor Relations Corazon Guidote.

Aside from its anchor and specialty retail brands, other SM-related brands that located in SM City Puerto Princesa are variety store chain Miniso, BDO, SM Cinema and Director’s Club and logistics company, 2GO as well as BDO.

SM Retail continues to expand across the country. For one, the food retail group under SM Markets plus WalterMart pursued its expansion both in urban and rural communities.

For the SM STORE, it opened SM CDO Downtown in Cagayan de Oro this year aside from SM City Puerto Princesa. As of the first half, the total gross selling area of all 58 department stores stood at 760,000 square meters.

Revenues from SM Retail’s specialty retail stores grew 8 percent to R31.6 billion in the first half of 2017. Specialty retail brands include Ace Hardware, SM Appliance Center, Homeworld, Our Home, Toy Kingdom, Watsons, Kultura, Baby Company, Sports Central, Forever 21 and Body Shop which continue to expand nationwide. (JAL)