Puregold bags Budgetlane grocery chain

Lucio Co- owned Puregold Price Club Inc. continues with its acquisition binge of neighborhood groceries and supermarkets with the acquisition of Budgetlane. The purchase covers eight Budgetlane supermarkets that are strategically located in prime areas of Metro Manila and Luzon. These stores will boost the company’s growth and expansion strategies, Puregold said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange. Of the eight stores, two are located in Pasig, two in Antipolo, two in Rizal, two in Laguna and one in Batangas. “This acquisition reinforces the company’s continuing commitment and focus to serve the broad consumer mass market,” Puregold said. Budgetlane, owned by the Tan family of Pasig, started as a small grocery store at the Old Pasig Public Market. The small grocery store was converted into a supermarket after 22 years. As of the end of the first half, Puregold had 258 stores nationwide including nine S& R stores and 10 S& R New York style outlets. The company has been acquiring smaller and single propriety supermarkets in Luzon as it seeks to cement a dominant position in the wholesale and budget supermarket category. Puregold has acquired Parco, Unilane, and Sioland in San Pablo, Laguna. The investment per store ranges from P200 million to P300 million. Officials said the company would continue to be on the lookout for opportunities to acquire smaller supermarkets and neighborhood groceries. In the first quarter, Puregold posted a consolidated net income of P1.05 billion, an increase of 11.7 percent from P943 million in the same period last year. “This was due to the continuous expansion of the group and combined management effort to boost revenue driven from old and new stores while maintaining efficiency on operating expenses at its current level,” Puregold said. Consolidated net sales reached P20.69 billion, up 12.5 percent year on year.