Philippine Seven Corp., the local licensee of 7-Eleven convenience stores in the country, said net income grew 16.6 percent in 2016 to P1.18 billion from P1 billion in 2015 on continued rollout of new stores.
PSC said in a disclosure to the stock exchange retail sales of all stores climbed 23.2 percent to P31.8 billion from P25.7 billion recorded a year ago, as the company opened 393 stores in 2016.
It said as of end-2016, it was operating 1,995 stores all over the Philippines, of which 55 percent were owned by franchisees and 45 percent were company-owned outlets. Of the total stores, 1,633 outlets were in Luzon, 255 in the Visayas and 107 in Mindanao.
Same-store sales went up 1.2 percent last year.
“We continued to dominate the convenience retail sector by opening new stores all throughout the country. We capitalized on our first-mover advantage and economies of scale in widening our lead against competitors. The capacity building expenditures we made in the form of establishing new distribution centers and regional headquarters are starting to produce favorable results,” PSC said.
PSC said it would further expand its product offering, remodel existing stores and implement market development plan over the next five years to enable it to achieve new milestones. PSC budgeted P3.5 billion for 2017 capital expenditures to support store expansion.