THE EXCLUSIVE franchisee of the McDonald’s brand in the Philippines is focusing on rolling out more NXTGEN stores this year, as part of its continued aggressive store expansion.
Golden Arches Development Corp. (GADC) Managing Director Margot B. Torres said they are “very positive” in terms of growth since the company now has more than 600 stores under its portfolio.
“We will still add more stores…And we’re now at about more than 600 stores, and we will continue with our aggressive growth,” Ms. Torres told reporters during the launch of McDonald’s partnership with online delivery service GrabFood last week.
GADC spent P2 billion for its store expansion last year, which saw the opening of 61 new stores.
While declining to disclose details of their capex for the year, Ms. Torres said the company’s capital spending will mainly finance the rollout of more NXTGEN stores. These new stores feature modern designs, self-order kiosks and facilitate cashless transactions. The first NXTGEN store was launched in October last year, located at McKinley West in Taguig City.
“Now we have almost 25 (NXTGEN) hanggang Boracay, Tagaytay, Southwoods (in Laguna), marami na rin sa Metro Manila, some malls,” Ms. Torres said.
The company is also upgrading existing stores to have NXTGEN features.
“I would link it to the commitment to have a differentiated customer experience and essentially improve service because that will always be what’s important to the brand,” Ms. Torres said.
Asked what risks they expect to see this year, Ms. Torres said they are keeping a close eye on the inflation rate.
“Every year we face inflation which affects consumer confidence and consumer spending, and then the other risk is the food cost increases. Pero hindi sya new, it’s every year. We anticipate that naman,” Ms. Torres said.
GADC is the quick service restaurant arm of tycoon Andrew L. Tan’s Alliance Global Group, Inc. (AGI). The conglomerate also has core interests in property, liquor, and gaming.
The company recently partnered with GrabFood, the food delivery arm of Grab Philippines to expand its online delivery services. GrabFood delivery will now be available in 60 McDonald’s stores in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. This is further seen to increase to 100 hubs by the end of the year.
The partnership comes amid the growth of McDonald’s delivery platform, which Ms. Torres noted has been growing at a double-digit pace over the last three years.
GADC’s attibutable profit rose by three percent to P991 million in the first nine months of 2018, according to AGI’s quarterly report. Sales revenues grew by eight percent to P20.3 billion, supported by a four percent increase in same-store sales. — Arra B. Francia