Fruitas starts overseas expansion

MANILA, Philippines — Fruitas Holdings Inc. (FHI), the listed food and beverage kiosk operator, is making its foray overseas with the opening of its first franchise store in Dubai.

FHI president and CEO Lester Yu said the company is excited to have the Filipino brand in the Middle Eastern country, consumed by both overseas Filipinos and locals alike.

“We are excited to bring Fruitas to Dubai. The Fruitas brand, with its suite of fresh and healthy products, is universal and exportable to a lot more territories outside the Philippines,” Yu said during FHI’s first annual shareholders meeting as a listed company.

The Dubai store commenced operations on Dec. 1.  It is located in BurJuman, a prime shopping mall in Dubai.

It offers several product lines such as fruit shakes, pearl shakes and milk tea, fresh fruit desserts, halo-halo and fresh lemonades.

During the stockholders meeting, Fruitas also announced the expansion of its network in the Philippines, with about 60 kiosks and community stores in the pipeline.

For its local expansion, Fruitas is taking advantage of prime locations that have opened up as a result of the pandemic, with 60 new kiosks and community stores in the pipeline.

There will be more store openings in Mindanao.

The company recently opened its first kiosk in Koronadal and will add more kiosks in Butuan and Zamboanga City.

The expansion of FHI’s  kiosk network continues alongside the opening of more community stores, under the Babot’s Farm and Soy & Bean brands, which now number around 20 as of November.

This is targeted to reach at least 30 by the end of the year.

Yu’s group plans to have a total of 100 community stores in 2021 as he reiterated his vision to have every Filipino household consume a Fruitas product everyday.

Fruitas now has over 20 brands in its portfolio, including Fruitas Fresh from Babot’s Farm, Buko Loco, Buko ni Fruitas, De Original Jamaican Pattie, Johnn Lemon, Juice Avenue, Black Pearl, Friends Fries, The Mango Farm, 7,107 Halo Halo Islands, Tea Rex, Kuxina, Shou La Mien Hand-Pulled Noodles, and Sabroso Lechon.