Metro Retail Group unveils aggressive 5-year expansion plan

Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. of the Gaisano family is giving competition in the retail industry a run for their money as it unveils its own aggressive five-year expansion plan.

The soon-to-be-listed multiformat retailer intends to spend between P10 billion and P15 billion over the next five years to expand its network of stores nationwide, its top official told

The STAR.

In an interview, Metro Retail chairman and chief executive officer Frank Gaisano said the company is planning to bolster its presence nationwide by opening five to 10 stores annually until 2020 with a capital spending of about P2 to P3 billion a year.

“We’re not counting on the IPO (initial public offering) for our expansion. With or without the IPO, we can expand. We can grow using our internal generated cash flow plus some debt but with an IPO we’re looking at more accelerated growth. Our financials are very solid. It’s no hindrance, but with the IPO our growth will be a lot faster,” he said. Gaisano said the new stores would be a combination of its three store formats composed of supermarkets, department stores, and hypermarkets.

He said the bulk of its expansion would still be in the Visayas where it is currently the largest department store and largest hypermarket operator and the second largest supermarket operator in terms of sales.

“I would be building more big stores than small stores because I think that is where the scarcity might be. There’s about more than half a million

sari-sari stores in the country already. The big boxes will be scarcer as we go forward so that’s where we will go,” Gaisano said.

Aside from its market leading position in the Visayas, Metro Retail also has a strong presence in the National Capital Region, Calabarzon, Central Luzon, and the Bicol region. The company operates 46 stores to date, 26 of which are in the Visayas. Gaisano said the company’s maiden venture in Mindanao may happen by 2017 at the earliest. “We’re being invited in Mindanao, but we’re looking if there are great sites. Mindanao has a lot of potential, even more than Visayas going forward. Right now we’re already in Leyte, Cebu, Bacolod, and Iloilo so there’s still a lot of municipalities we can go in those islands before we go to Mindanao,” he said. Metro Retail in 2001 took its first step to expand outside Cebu with the opening of a department store in Legazpi City. In 2004, it debuted in Metro Manila with a store in Taguig. To date, the company has nine stores in Metro Manila. Metro Retail in August this year filed an application to the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise about P5.6 billion from an IPO with a target listing date on the Philippine Stock exchange by Nov. 12.