July 22, 2016

The Manila Times, July 22, 2016

KATRINA MENNEN A. VALDEZ

PHILIPPINE Seven Corp. (PSC), licensed operator of 7-Eleven convenience stores in the country, said on Thursday that its net income for the year may grow by a third from last year if the earnings trend from the first half is maintained.

Victor Paterno, PSC president and chief executive officer, said given the company’s robust performance in the first six months, its net profit for the entire year could hit close to P1.3 billion, or 30 percent higher than the P1 billion realized in 2015.

“Given our first-half performance, where we registered a 32 percent increase in our net income, and if that trend continues in the second half… so, less than P1.3 billion,” Paterno said in a briefing prior to the company’s stockholders’ meeting.

In the first half, PSC grew its net income by 32.5 percent from a year ago to P472.3 million on strong growth in retail sales that was boosted by election-related spending.

“There was strong election-related spending during the first half of the year, that’s why it was very strong. We do not give income guidance, but we hope we could get P1.3 billion or less by the end of the year,” he added.

As of end-2015, 7-Eleven had 1,740 stores, of which 1,474 are in Luzon, 203 in the Visayas and 63 in Mindanao.

In the first half of this year it added 148 stores and in the second half it intends to open another 250 outlets to bring its total number of stores to 2,000 by the end of the year.

Half of the 250 new stores will be located in Luzon and the remainder would be split between the Visayas and Mindanao, he said.

Paterno said PSC hopes franchisee ownership rather than company-owned stores would eventually dominate its store network “similar to that of Taiwan, where franchisees own about 90 percent of all the 5,000 stores.”

At present, 57 percent of its stores are franchisee-owned. PSC plans to increase this ratio by offering a much affordable investment package for interested applicants.

“We have the P3.5 million investment for a store franchise, but we are now introducing an affordable one which would only cost P1 million or even less. The idea here is to bring in more participants,” he said.

“We want to partner with people with experience and we are looking at an amount that compensates you well for your time, although you won’t be an overnight millionaire,” he said.