2GO developing e-commerce platform

MANILA, Philippines — Listed logistics company 2GO Group Inc. is developing its own e-commerce platform, possibly in the likes of Amazon or Alibaba, the giants in the e-commerce world, said its chairman Dennis Uy.

Uy said that while 2GO serves external customers, it also wants to develop its own e-commerce business, which has been booming significantly in recent years and has been eating a chunk of the traditional retail market in the Philippines.

Tycoon Teresita Sy-Coson, vice chairman of SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) said her group is looking at how 2GO could be the SM Group’s e-commerce platform.

Uy’s Chelsea Logistics and the SMIC, the conglomerate of the Sy family, are now the majority shareholders of the 2GO Group after successfully taking control of the logistics firm previously led by the Tagud family. Uy’s holding company Udenna Corp. has a 31 percent stake  in KGLI-NM Holdings Inc., which in turn has a 60 percent stake in 2G0’s parent company Negros Navigation Co. Inc. (Nenaco). SMIC, meanwhile, has a 34.5 percent stake in Nenaco.

“The e-commerce portion, we’ve delegated it to the SM Group. They have the store formats. We’re working very well with them. We’re serving external customers but we don’t have our own yet. We’re developing our own,” Uy said.

Sy, for her part, said the SM Group is looking at whether e-commerce is something they could blend in the future.

“Those are things we are still studying,” she said.

Many of the country’s retailers said the booming e-commerce business has become a threat to traditional brick and mortar stores. Thus, many are now setting up their own online business platforms.

Sy said whatever further expansion the SM Group would undertake in the area of logistics would be done through 2GO.

“So far, it’s okay. Old management has done well. There’s not much disruption. Henceforth, we will be looking toward the future.  There are a lot of people who say logistics is a business in the future but we don’t know. We’re just here on a minor position to check,” Sy said.

During the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting last week, Uy said 2GO is banking on strong growth in the Visayas and Mindanao regions.

“Growth is outside Metro Manila, in key cities in Visayas and Mindanao,” he said, adding that 2GO is offering an integrated supply platform with a 24 vessel fleet, servicing 4.3 billion passengers annually, and moving 329,000 TEUs a year.

Uy said the bright prospects of the country’s economy would translate to even brighter prospects for 2GO.

“Growth of 2GO will reach even greater heights,” Uy said.