Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc., one of the country’s leading restaurant operators owned by the Po family, is acquiring Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken, an emerging fast casual and full-service restaurant brand in the Philippines.
Shakey’s said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it signed an agreement to purchase the assets and intellectual property relating to the Peri business, including its brand, trade name and the various proprietary recipes used by the chain to make its trademark peri-peri chicken.
The company did not disclose the acquisition cost.
The deal is expected to close by mid-year upon fulfillment of certain conditions.
The acquisition will also involve owning and operating all company-owned stores and serving as brand-owner and franchisor of stores being operated by franchisees.
“We look forward to growing this business t¡hrough our tried and tested formula of investing in the brand, investing in the people and investing in the stores. We will maintain the taste and look that made Peri famous, but hope to further elevate the customer experience with Shakey’s trademark ‘wow-ing’ service and improve the stores’ accessibility via proper site selection and expansion of the network,” Shakey’s president and chief executive Vicente Gregorio said.
Peri has a store network of 23 units in several parts of Metro Manila, about 60 percent of which are franchised and 40 percent company-owned.
“We are excited by the potential of Peri to scale. We expect it to be an important future growth driver for our fast-casual chain restaurant business. Our deep insights into how to best serve the typical fast-casual restaurant guest should allow us to further grow the Peri brand. This is in addition to leveraging our team’s execution capabilities, which remain best-in-class and our restaurant operating systems, which have also continued to improve over the last few years,” said Shakey’s chairman Christopher Po.
Shakey’s had a nationwide store count of 228 as of end-2018. It expects to open 20 stores this year. Shakey’s also has three outlets abroad.
Shakey’s said with two international area development agreements signed up, its total international pipeline would be at least 20 outlets over the next few years.
Shakey’s owns the perpetual rights to the Shakey’s brand for the Middle East, Asia (excluding Japan and Malaysia), China, Australia and Oceania.
“This Peri acquisition is another vote of confidence in the growing middle class in the Philippines. We will continue to invest in the restaurant space and diversify the business portfolio in the hope of achieving our vision of establishing wow brands”•a handful of industry leading, full-service restaurant chains appealing to the Filipinos’ increasing need for affordable yet premium dining out options,” Po said.