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MANILA – With its record-high net income of PHP2.06 billion in 2022, the Philippine Seven Corp. (PSC), the exclusive licensor of 7-Eleven in the country, is bullish about the growth of convenience stores this year.
In a virtual press briefing after its annual stockholders’ meeting Thursday, PSC president and chief executive officer Jose Victor Paterno said the company’s expansion this year would still be driven by the growth of the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector, overseas Filipino workers investing in businesses, people working from home, and freelancers.
“We expect 2023 to be another record year,” Paterno said. “We’re bullish with the growth of the Philippines.”
He said PSC’s performance in the first quarter this year has exceeded the pre-pandemic levels.
Although foot traffic declined to about 80 percent of the pre-pandemic level, spending per basket surged by 120 percent, he added.
Bouncing back
Paterno said the listed firm aims to continue its strategy of going outside Mega Manila, as this has helped 7-Eleven bounce back after the height of the pandemic.
The PSC incurred net losses of PHP419.7 million and PHP461 million in 2020 and 2021, respectively, as businesses were completely shut down in the first year of the pandemic, while different community quarantine levels were declared in the second year, which affected the operations of its stores.
The company has begun to roll out this year its pre-pandemic market development plan of putting up 400 new stores.
The PSC is allotting PHP3.7 billion as capital expenditure this year.
“We opened about 150 stores so far this year out of 400 new stores target. New stores (are) mostly outside Metro Manila,” PSC head of finance Lawrence de Leon said, adding that the new stores would be a 50-50 mix of company-owned and franchised stores.
“Outlook for investments remains bright. The last PFA (Philippine Franchise Association) expo(sition) showed a lot of interest for 7-Eleven as an investment alternative.” (PNA)
