120 Family Mart stores planned in Cebu

Mayen Tan is flanked by her son Allen, Family Table Inc president and managing director, on the left and Anton Huang of specialty store retailer SSI Group Inc on the right. (CDN PHOTO/THEA RINEN)

A total of 120 Family Mart convenience stores will be opened in Cebu over the next 10 years.

Allen Arvin A. Tan, president and managing director of Family Table, Inc., said this was their commitment as territorial franchisee for Cebu, the first outside Metro Manila, of the Japanese-owned convenience store chain.

Family Table opened last week the first 5 stores, located at Arc One Capitol Square, Streetscape in Banilad and eBloc Tower 1, 2 and 3 in Cebu IT Park. It takes up to P6 million to operate a store.

Four or 5 more stores will be opened in the next 6 months, including one at the ACC Corporate Center, Tan said.

“We’re concentrating in Metro Cebu for the initial 20 stores,” he told reporters before the launching last Friday.

Nationwide, the target is to open 500 stores in 5 years, said Eduardo N. Paredes Jr., general manager of Philippine FamilyMart CVS, Inc., a joint venture of Stores Specialists, Inc., Ayala Land, Inc., Japan FamilyMart and Itochu Corp.

Aside from Metro Manila and Cebu, PFM is looking at Bacolod, Iloilo, Davao,  Dumaguete and other growth centers as store locations.

As of last week, Paredes said they have opened 105 stores in Metro Manila since April 2013. With the additional stores in Cebu, the FamilyMart network has increased to 110.

“The Philippines is ripe for convenience stores because we have a young population and a growing BPO (business process outsourcing) sector, which supports the growth of the convenience store (sector),” he said. The BPO sector employs nearly 100,000 workers in Cebu.

A commissary will be set up in Cebu in 2 or 3 years to support the network’s growth, Tan said.

FamilyMart is the first Japanese-owned convenience store chain to go global. There are currently over 16,000 stores worldwide.