Toby’s sets P20-M expansion

THE COMPANY behind Toby’s Sports, the country’s biggest sports retail chain, is investing as much as P20 million to further expand its retail network next year as it seeks to cater to the Filipinos’ growing preference for a healthy lifestyle.

Roberto Claudio Sr., chair of the Quorom Group of Companies (QGC), said the amount would be used to put up four more stores next year, two of which would be for new Toby’s branches while the other two might be for the company’s other brands.

QGC also has under its portfolio four other sports stores—Runnr, which sells running equipment; Urban Athletics for fashion and street wear; Move, an all fitness store, and Trek, which mainly sells bikes. These branches are mostly located in SM, Robinsons and Ayala malls.

Claudio, however, declined to identify potential sites that they were considering for the new stores, but noted that it could be anywhere in the 20 new malls that were expected to be put up across the country over the next three years.

The move to expand its network was meant to cater to a growing sports and fitness market in the Philippines.

“The sports market is increasing because Filipinos are getting to be sports minded and fitness conscious. That’s our mission. We’re not just selling sporting goods. We’re selling a healthy lifestyle. That’s the goal of the Toby’s group. We teach you how to be healthy, we teach you how to be fit, we teach how you can be sports conscious,” Claudio said.

According to Claudio, they were now benefiting from a boom in sports and fitness consciousness in the sense that they could supply the needs for active wear and equipment.

QGC expects its gross revenues to grow faster by 8 percent this year as compared to the company’s average annual growth of about 3 to 5 percent.

“This 8-percent growth can be attributed to our continued expansion, with the opening of new stores and [distribution of] new brands. We’re being made the distributor for major international brands in the Philippines and that’s been driving our growth,” Claudio explained.

“And with 2016 being an election year, we also hope to sustain that 8 percent as well. Personal consumption is still growing too, so we hope the election spending will trigger the spending of that extra money that people have,” he added.