Golden ABC eyes up to 100 new stores yearly

Golden ABC Inc. (GABC), which owns fashion brands Penshoppe and Regatta, is looking to widen its nationwide footprint by opening up to 100 stores yearly with majority of the openings set to take place outside Metro Manila.

GABC chairman and chief executive officer Bernie Liu said the firm is looking to expand its current profile of over 1,000 stores with over 1 million square feet of retail space covering the brands Penshoppe, OXGN, ForMe, Memo, Regatta, and Bocu.

“I do not have the exact numbers, but we should be looking at maintaining 50 stores a year, I suppose, 50 to a hundred new stores a year, hopefully,” he said on the sidelines of The Business Manual CEO Awards late Sunday evening where he was one of the awardees.

“We go where the expansion goes. I think we are partners with the different malls around the country, so I think a lot of the expansion will be outside Metro Manila, and we will go where the opportunity brings us,” he added.

Looking ahead, Liu said he is optimistic for the year even as outside factors such as overseas elections such as in the United States and geopolitical tensions involving China could impact global trade.

“Tayo naman sa Pilipinas (For us in the Philippines), so far, I think we have the opportunity to participate in the trade, in the global trade activity, so we’ll just have to keep a close watch on what’s happening,” he said.

“The tension in China, the election in the US, of course the war in the Middle East, all of that we’ll just have to monitor things closely, but I’m an optimist and I believe that the Philippines is well-situated to be able to take advantage of the continuing opportunities,” he added.

Liu said he believes demand will continue, following the opening up of the economy after the lockdowns which were implemented to avoid the spread of COVID-19 in the past years.

Asked if there are any plans for GABC to be publicly listed, Liu did not give a categorical response, but said the firm is already behaving like it is.

“I always tell our people we are a private company that behaves like a public company. The way we govern, the way we are professionalizing, the way how professional we are running a business is really like running a publicly listed company but we continue to be privately held,” he said.—AOL, GMA Integrated News