MANILA – Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc. on Wednesday said it has postponed plans to open new stores this year amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic as it expects the expansion of dine-in capacity of restaurants to boost sales.
“On new stores, what (was) supposed to be a record-breaking year in terms of organic expansion has now been put on pause. Prudence dictates that we review both our store network as well as our planned expansion strategy amidst the economic uncertainties brought about by the crisis,” Shakey’s president and chief executive officer Vicente Gregorio said during the company’s virtual stockholders’ meeting.
Gregorio said the company has originally targeted to put up 38 new stores this year.
He added 267 stores have already reopened as of June 30 from just 24 stores as of March 31. These comprise 95 percent of the total store count of 279.
The government placed the entire island of Luzon under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) from March 17 until May 15 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the country. This quarantine was extended for Metro Manila until May 31.
Metro Manila and other areas have remained under a general community quarantine (GCQ).
Gregorio said only 15 to 20 percent of pre-Covid-19 dine-in sales had been recovered since the first week of June.
“However, the good news that the government came out allowing more capacity, the dine-in, is definitely welcome and we expect this to be a big boost in increasing the recovery rates for our dine-in sales and we are preparing for that one,” he said.
The government will further increase the capacity of dine-in restaurants and fast-food establishments up to 50 percent in GCQ areas, and up to 75 percent in modified GCQ areas effective July 21.
Gregorio said dine-in sales constitute 60 to 65 percent of its total sales.
“We hope that the quarantine measure continues to ease up that would put us in a very good position,” he added. (PNA)
