7-Eleven stores to Calabarzon and beyond

Convenience store operator Philippine Seven Corp. is looking to open new stores in residential areas in Calabarzon and other places outside the National Capital Region.

“We will be expanding again in pretty different areas than we were originally targeting,” said Jose Victor P. Paterno, Philippine Seven President and Chief Executive Officer, at a media briefing.

“We are underweighting CBDs (central business districts) and overweighting residential areas,” he added.

Philippine Seven, the country’s exclusive licensor of 7-Eleven, said its stores in the CBDs were the worst-performing due to fewer and fewer customers reporting to their offices.

Philippine Seven opened 174 stores last year, lower than its initial target of 350, and has opened around 75 stores year-to-date—its 3,000^th store was launched this week in Meycauayan, Bulacan.

The company is aiming to have 3,200 stores by yearend and has earmarked at least ₱1 billion in capital expenditures this year to open at least 200 new stores.

It is also aiming to accommodate 1,200 recycling ATMs in 7-Eleven stores before year-end—it currently has over 400 ATMs in Metro Manila and Cavite.

“At some point, we’ll jump to the Visayas and Mindanao,” said Paterno.

However, the company has stated it is experiencing issues with cash handling in its ATM rollout.

“Ideally, you would have as many deposits as withdrawals and this would allow you to go into areas that nobody else could penetrate because they would typically have to deliver by armor truck, but as we roll out, it’s conservative to expand that concentrically,” noted Paterno.

Shares of Philippine Seven closed on Thursday at ₱97.50 apiece, unchanged.

SOURCE: Business World