Philippine Seven steps up expansion

The country’s biggest convenience store operator, Philippine Seven Corp., plans to further expand its nationwide store network and capture more cross-selling opportunities, including the handling of payments for airline booking.

PSC president Jose Victor Paterno told reporters after the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting Thursday that the retailer, which now operates 600 stores across Luzon, was planning to build 100 more stores for the rest of the year. Another 150 will be built next year as part of the strategy to generate more scale for this business.

The company’s target is to hit 1,000 stores by 2013. Paterno said the company would be open to either organic expansion or acquisition of other smaller convenience store chains.

The company currently operates only in Luzon but wants to break into Visayas and Mindanao in the future.

Asked about other cross-selling opportunities sought by PSC, Paterno said the company would like to handle Internet-based payment. He sees a big opportunity in accepting payment for airline booking, noting that airline transactions account for about 70 percent of e-commerce in the country.

PSC is currently in talks with some foreign and local carriers for such potential arrangement, he said.

To help fulfill the 1,000-store network mandate, the company is building an additional warehouse to adjoin the 12,800-square-meter central storage facilities in Pasig.

A new warehouse building adds 3,200 sqm for a total covered storage area of 16,000 sqm on 2.2 hectares of land, based on PSC’s annual report.

A satellite north warehouse is now in operation in Urdaneta, Pangasinan, and a south Luzon satellite warehouse within Bicol is being planned.

PSC has signed an agreement with an existing chain of 10 small stores in Bicol for conversion to 7-Eleven operation. In addition, the company has an agreement with the Total chain of gasoline stations, which allows it to lease space and related facilities in their stations.