Sia’s grocery start-up MerryMart starts franchising

Contributed photo

MANILA, Philippines – Young tycoon Edgar “Injap” Sia II has opened his start-up grocery business “MerryMart” to franchising as part of its aspiration to roll out 1,200 branches nationwide and generate P120 billion in systemwide revenues by 2030.

MerryMart, which is owned by the Sia family and outside of publicly-listed property developer DoubleDragon Properties Corp., signed its first franchise agreement for a MerryMart Store to be located beside Mang Inasal in Mambusao Sigma road in Capiz province.

The site is a pit stop for people travelling or doing business from the nearby municipalities of Sapi-an, Dumalag, Jamindan and Dao.

The first franchisee, Arturo Oñas, was also the very first franchisee of Mang Inasal, the restaurant chain founded by Sia that was eventually bought by Jollibee Foods Corp. in a deal that turned him into a billionaire.

“I immediately reached out to MerryMart to apply for a franchise because I know this will again become a highly successful venture. I can still remember when I applied for a Mang Inasal franchise early on about 12 years ago and became the first franchisee of Mang Inasal, now I operate a chain of 23 Mang Inasal franchise stores, and I hope to also grow my MerryMart franchise in the years to come,” Oñas said.

Sia said he was “personally grateful” for Oñas’ faith in MerryMart.

“We would like to take advantage of our group’s know-how in franchising, and our familiarity of the Philippine market terrain, just like in the rollout of Mang Inasal, CityMall, Hotel101 and CentralHub network. We believe this step will further strengthen the market grip of all the industries that our group is involved in,” Sia added./gsg