Fruitas’ delivery business up tenfold since lockdown

Lester Yu

Delivery platform CocoDelivery, a unit of newly-listed kiosk operator Fruitas Holdings Inc., has increased its business tenfold since the government’s lockdown order on Luzon as a way to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fruitas founder, president and chief executive officer Lester Yu said that at the beginning of the month-long lockdown, Cocodelivery was overwhelmed by the surge in volume given manpower constraints.

Sales initially had grown by five times the normal volume in the early stage of the lockdown and accelerated to 10 times the usual volume to date, Yu said on Monday.

“But we are not overwhelmed anymore. We are able to adjust and cope,” Yu said.

“We asked some employees from other departments and business units to help. We couldn’t hire at this time due to the ECQ (enhanced community quarantine) constraints, plus the uncertainty of the market after the ECQ,” he said.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, CocoDelivery cited positive opportunities despite business limitations brought by the Luzon-wide ECQ.

Fruitas has expanded its CocoDelivery service, both in terms of product scope and geographical coverage. To address increasing demand, it has added mobile lines and widened the products available through the CocoDelivery service from 100-percent fresh buko juice to include Jamaican Pattie, Tea Rex milk tea, and selected Soy & Bean products like soy milk, taho and tofu.

The group has also rolled out a delivery service covering Metro Cebu. It aims to bring onboard additional products on the service and also explore partnerships, the disclosure said.

To help the country’s medical front-liners against the COVID-19 pandemic, Fruitas customers can pledge bottles of Fruitas fresh juice to benefit healthcare workers. Fruitas has committed to match every pledged bottle with another bottle as its way of giving back to these front-liners. The goal is to donate at least 1,000 bottles of fresh buko juice everyday.

Fruitas’ senior management also agreed to release a pro-rata portion of the 13th month pay of its employees to support them during this challenging period.

“In this critical time, we commit to fulfilling our responsibility to all stakeholders. We have quickly adapted to the current situation and adjusted our business model to protect the interest of our shareholders and widely distribute our products to our customers. We will continue to give back to the community and do our small part in the fight against COVID-19. We will also take care of our employees, who have been our constant partners to successfully grow our business,” Yu said.