MANILA, Philippines—SM group has hit the 100-store mark in the Philippines with last Friday’s opening of a new SM department store and a new supermarket at its newest shopping mall SM City Naga in Camarines Sur.

SM Investments Corp. reported to the Philippine Stock Exchange that its network now consisted of 34 SM department stores, 25 SM supermarkets, 14 SaveMore branches, 13 SM hypermarkets and 14 Makro outlets.

SM’s retail business is divided into two main segments, the nonfood group, which is principally SM department stores, and the food group, composed of SM supermarkets, SaveMore stores, SM hypermarkets and Makro outlets. The group expects a double-digit growth in retail sales to continue for the rest of the year.

“SM retail’s sustained expansion nationwide fits well with the country’s consistently robust and dynamic consumer sector. Domestic consumer spending, supported to a large extent by remittances from overseas Filipinos, continues to grow. Thus, with the opening of SM’s 100th retail outlet, we intend to further enhance our product and service delivery for the benefit of the millions of consumers within the SM world,” SMIC president Harley Sy said in a statement.

The high-volume, low-margin food and nonfood retail merchandising business accounts for the lion’s share or 85 percent of SMIC’s about P115 billion in annual revenues. In terms of net earnings, it contributes 40 percent, still the biggest contributor to the business, followed by shopping mall (SM Prime) with a 36-percent income contribution.

The group will also soon open a new SM department store at the Annex of SM City Rosales. For the rest of 2009, SM plans to open one more department store, one supermarket, eight SaveMore branches and six hypermarkets.