Injap’s retail business up for franchising

Edgar “Injap” Sia II has opened for franchising his startup retailing business, “MerryMart,” as part of his aspiration to roll out 1,200 branches nationwide and generate P120 billion in systemwide revenue by 2030.

Sia—who is building the MerryMart group outside of publicly listed property developer DoubleDragon Properties Corp.—signed the first “MerryMart Store” franchise agreement with Arturo Oñas. The first franchised MerryMart Store will be located beside Mang Inasal in Mambusao Sigma Road in Capiz province, a site seen as a pit stop for people traveling or doing business from the nearby municipalities of Sapi-an, Dumalag, Jamindan and Dao.

Franchisee Oñas was involved in the distribution business and 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 made the latter a billionaire.

In a text message, Sia estimated that investment cost for each MerryMart store franchise was P10 million to P15 million.

“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 in a statement on Monday.

For his part, Sia said he was “personally grateful” for Oñas’ faith in MerryMart. He is looking forward to have this Mang Inasal franchisee operate multiple MerryMart Stores as well.

MerryMart Store is the household essential store format of the MerryMart Group. The concept of a MerryMart Store combines the minigrocery, pharmacy and health/beauty lines in a store with an average footprint of about 250 square meters. The three-in-one innovation concept and expansion through franchising are expected to bring in operational efficiencies and enable MerryMart to rapidly scale up and build up durable competitive advantage. Franchising is also seen to create business opportunities for many budding entrepreneurs.

MerryMart has three retailing formats—MerryMart Grocery, MerryMart Market and MerryMart Store.

The group’s expansion program is seen to create over 15,000 new jobs for Filipinos in the near term.

The first MerryMart opened in April at the ground floor of DoubleDragon Plaza, DD Meridian Park, Bay Area, Metro Manila. To date, there are seven MerryMart branches under simultaneous construction. The next branch is set to open at the ground floor of the new Ayala Mall Manila Bay.