Puregold opens 5 new stores Wednesday

MANILA, Philippines—Puregold Price Club Inc. is set to open five new stores Wednesday, putting the supermarket chain closer to reaching 100 stores by the end of the year.

The five new stores scheduled to start operations Wednesday are in Pasig City (on C. Raymundo Avenue), Sta. Rosa in Laguna (on Pearl Road), Tiaong in Quezon province and Los Baños in Laguna.

With these new stores, Puregold now has 77 branches.

The company said in a statement that the opening of the five new branches was aimed at meeting the expanding market, given the growth in the economy and the population.

Puregold president Leonardo Dayao said in a briefing that the company is on expansion mode, eyeing to put up 25 more branches next year and another 25 by 2013.

Puregold is all set for its initial public offering on September 21. It hopes to generate P12.4 billion from the sale of as much as 600 million common shares, and it intends to use the proceeds to finance its expansion in the next two years.

The IPO will close on September 29 and the listing is set on October 5.