7-Eleven Philippines to have nearly 3,000 stores by end of 2019

Philippine Seven Corporation (PSC), the franchise holder of 7-Eleven in the Philippines, on Thursday said it is on track to end the year with nearly 3,000 stores across the country.

"Close to 3,000 [stores] by the end of the year. Right now we are at almost 2,700," PSC president and CEO Jose Victor Paterno told reporters when asked about the company's expansion plans.

To achieve this, PSC has allocated P3.5 billion for its spending program in 2019.

"We're looking at spending up to P3.5 billion for this year," Lawrence De Leon, Finance Unit head, told reporters in Pasig City.

According to De Leon, a third of the amount will be for the opening of new stores, while another third will be for the remodeling of stores aged six to seven years.

"The balance will be to support new product launches. We're expanding the coverage of our fried chicken Crunchtime, as well as our coffee," he said.

"We also trimmed down the level of our debt... We're already closing into zeroing out the level of our outstanding debt," he added.

Shares of PSC closed unchanged on Thursday at P142.00 apiece. — BM, GMA News