LISTED Cebu-based retailer Metro Retail Stores Group, Inc. is starting to implement an aggressive expansion program that will bring its network to 100 stores in five years.
The biggest retailer in the Visayas plans to open a store in Tacloban City, Leyte, nearly three years after Supertyphoon Yolanda devastated the coastal community.
Marilou Tabao, chief of staff of Mayor Alfred Romualdez, said representatives of Metro met with and informed the mayor on January 27 of the company’s decision to invest in Tacloban.
Tabao said Metro plans to build a two-story building on a two-hectare property owned by the United Church of Christ of the Philippines (UCCP) along Real Street.
“The operation of the Metro Gaisano in Tacloban will not only help the city government in terms of taxes but will also create more job opportunities and generate livelihood as well,” Tabao said.
She said construction might start next month. The store would be opened within the year or early next year.
Metro, fourth largest retailer in the country and the biggest in the Visayas, earlier said it planned to open 50 to 70 new stores in the next five years to bring its network to 100 stores.
Most of these new stores would be opened in the Visayas, company executives said. The company, which is the retail arm of Vicsal Development Corp., debuted on the Philippine stock market in November last year.
Two other Gaisano-owned shopping malls operate in Tacloban — the Gaisano Capital and Gaisano Central.