Philippine Seven Corp., plans to sell more franchise this year to meet its goal of setting up 70 new stores for the year. It has established 24 new ones and half of the 46 to go will be franchises.

President Jose Victor Paterno said most of the new stores will be in urban areas in Luzon. Each store costs P6 million to establish.

Philippine Seven franchise marketing officer lee Gonzalo I. Perez said half of the present 289 stores are franchises.

“Our target is to bring our franchise stores to 60 percent of total stores we have,” Perez said.

Based on Philippine Seven’s three-year plan that runs through 2010 the number of stores should hit 500.