By Davao Today
DAVAO CITY— Giant retail chain player Puregold Price Club Inc wants a slice of the Davao Market, opening up its store branch in the city last Thursday.
Its new store is located in a mixed northern residential and commercial district, in Lanang, this city, a vicinity with existing similar hypermarket outlets, which indicates how unfazed Puregold is by the competition, Vice-President for Operations, Antonio delos Santos told a news conference during its launch Thursday.
Delos Santos is confident of its edge among its competitors with a marketing strategy that also targets, aside from end-consumers, the owners of mini-retail businesses popularly called in the country as sari-sari stores.
Every nook and cranny in the Philippines has a sari-sari store. To date, there is an estimated 1.5 million sari-sari stores in the country, Delos Santos said.
“There is still a huge, huge market to grow,” Delos Santos said, and discloses that the Davao branch in Lanang is the third store to be opened in Mindanao in just a span of four months, the other two branches, in Digos was opened last June, and in Tagum, just last July.
The store in Lanang has a floor space of 1,300 square meters.
Delos Santos cites the company’s bullish outlook, not only for Davao City but for the rest of Mindanao with more stores in the blueprint for expansion. Two stores are set to open similar hypermarket branches in Butuan and Cagayan de Oro cities within the year.
The company also launches its strategy dubbed as “Tindahan ni Aling Puring”, a project for the start-up entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises, and provides them with perks and business advices on how to start and maintain a small business and assistance.
This sets them apart from other stores, Delos Santos said.
Anyone who wishes to put up a sari-sari store business, he said, can just write a letter to “Aling Puring” to get help. For as low as P5,000 and up to P10,000, one can already start up one’s own small store business.
Business staff of the company also guide small business owners on the best products to sell, on how to display these products, as well as provide a store make-over if needed.
Members of the “Tindahan ni Aling Puring” program may use a Metrobank credit card to purchase items at zero interest rate for 51 days.
At its grand opening, Delos Santos discloses that they launched the Buy-One Take-One promo on selected items for an entire week from its launch date. “We will make sure that prices are competitive, maraming choices at mura, (many choices and affordable,)” Delos Santos said.
The food items will be sourced from local suppliers. “It is also part of our commitment to the local government units to help,” Delos Santos said.
The Lanang store is one of Puregold’s 191branches, owned by retail trade tycoon, Lucio Co. (davaotoday.com)
Puregold, Retail industry
