Cebu-based retailer Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. of the Gaisano family is expanding into Negros Oriental.
Metro Retail said in a disclosure to the stock exchange it signed a 25-year lease agreement with the local government of Bais, Negros Oriental to set up its first store in the province.
“We are very much excited to serve the growing city of Bais, and we see a lot of opportunities for mutual growth,” said MRSGI chairman and chief executive officer Frank Gaisano.
Metro Retail will lease building owned by the city government of Bais and which will be turned over in March 2017. The leading Visayas retailer plans to build a hypermarket, offering food and general merchandise retail.
Gaisano said the move to expand the group’s presence in Negros Oriental was part of the company’s goal to double its footprint over the next five years. Metro Retail currently has 400,000 square meters of gross floor area, mostly in the Visayas.
He said the store would also serve the neighboring municipalities of Manjuyod, Mabinay, Ayungon, Bindoy and Tayasan. Located 45 kilometers away from Dumaguete City, Bais hosts several sugar mills and is one of Negros Occidental’s largest producers of raw sugar.
Metro Retail currently operates 49 stores across the supermarket, department store and hypermarket formats.
It recently finalized an agreement with property giant Ayala Land Inc. to put up stores in four new Ayala commercial developments in Capitol Central in Bacolod City, Negros Occidental; Mandurriao, Iloilo City; Central Bloc in Cebu City; and the Ayala Malls Feliz in Pasig City.
Metro Retail in 2015 increased its net income by 21 percent to P758.6 million on the back of higher store sales and aggressive store expansion.
Metro Retail stores are present in key cities in Central, Western and Eastern Visayas, as well as in Central Luzon, Metro Manila and South Luzon.
The company is speeding up its logistics and supply chain modernization program with the recent inauguration of a 6,500-square-meter leased warehouse facility in Cebu.
The warehouse complements its 11,400-square-meter facility in Calamba City, Laguna that serves as a hub for Luzon operations.
