Fashion retailer allots P500 million for expansion

MANILA, Philippines - Filipino fashion retailer Golden ABC Inc., the company behind brands such as Penshoppe and Oxygen, is ramping up its store expansion locally with a P500- million spending program for this year.

Golden ABC is also beefing up its presence abroad, with plans to penetrate new markets in Asia, chief executive officer Bernie Liu said.

Liu said the company is planning to open 50 new stores in the country within the year to add to its existing network of over 600 outlets locally across different brands.

“A store would have a minimum investment of P5 to P10 million depending on the store. So given the 50 stores, P500 million is the minimum investment for us,” Liu said.

Liu said a large chunk of the new stores would be located outside Metro Manila “where a lot of commercial center developments are happening.”

“It’s bringing development to the countryside. I think we’ll all agree that we need to decongest Manila, it’s getting a little bit crowded here,” he said.

Aside from its aggressive Philippine expansion plan, Golden ABC is also looking to add more stores to its international network this year.

“We now have over 30 stores abroad. We are opening new territories within the year. And we want to perhaps bring it to 40 to 50 stores within the year,” Liu said.

Golden ABC at present has stores in Indonesia, Cambodia and Middle Eastern countries such as Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates.

Liu said the firm is eyeing to make its entry in three new markets in Asia this year to support its international expansion.

“We are now focusing on Asia. Our own ASEAN integration is happening within the year. We have presence in three of the 10 (ASEAN-member countries). We hope to be present in five or six of the 10 very soon,” he said.

Last year, Liu said Golden ABC’s sales reached P4 billion with only a small portion coming from its operations abroad.

“Overseas contribution is still very small. I would say it’s still single digit. But I think moving forward, we’ll be more aggressive, hopefully it will reach 10 percent soon,” Liu said.