MERRYMART receives SEC approval for P1.6-B IPO

MerryMart Consumer Corp. (‘MERRYMART’ or ‘MM’) received on March 11, 2020 the pre-effective approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission for its Initial Public Offering (IPO) for a primary offer of 1,594,936,709 shares at up to Php1.00 (one peso) per share.

MERRYMART has set its 12-12-12 Vision 2030 with the goal of rolling out a total of 1,200 MERRYMART branches nationwide. It aims to reach Php120 billion in system-wide sales revenue.

The MERRYMART Group now has 7 operating branches as of February 2020 and currently has 13 more branches under simultaneous construction. The 100th branch of MERRYMART is expected to open by the fourth quarter of 2021 next year.

MERRYMART aims to maintain its growth momentum to reach 600 branches by 2025 and 1,200 branches by 2030.

MERRYMART aims to cover all the grocery retail categories from small, medium and large retail formats namely MERRYMART Store, MERRYMART Market and MERRYMART Grocery.

The smallest format MERRYMART Store is a household essential store concept that combines Grocery + Personal Care + Pharmacy.

The 3-in-1 innovation and expansion through franchising is expected to bring in operational efficiencies and enable MERRYMART to rapidly scale up and build up durable competitive advantage.

Franchising also creates business opportunities for many budding entrepreneurs.

MERRYMART plans the development of the company brand through company-owned stores, as well as opening it for franchise to the public.

MERRYMART will serve as a platform for the existing local and traditional groceries to convert and be part of a modern branded retail chain network while retaining ownership of the store as a franchisee of MERRYMART.

Being part of the MERRYMART network will enable the current traditional retailers to future-proof themselves and keep them relevant for the next many decades and also enable them to bridge the ongoing shift from traditional retail to modern retail. This shift is inevitable when a developing country evolves to eventually become a first world country.

The MERRYMART expansion is seen to create over 15,000 new jobs for the Filipino workforce in the near term, and expected to exceed 50,000 systemwide workforce by 2030. The Philippine economy is expected to fully benefit from MERRYMART being a local Filipino home-grown brand.

In preparation for its rapid growth, MERRYMART has recently gone live on its SAP ERP system. MERRYMART will also soon be available in both online and offline channels.

MERRYMART also expects to set up several MERRYMART warehouses and distribution centers to support the MERRYMART branches around the country and intends to locate these in DoubleDragon’s CentralHub warehouse complexes.

“We would like to take advantage of our group’s knowhow in franchising, and our familiarity of the Philippine market terrain, just like in the rollout of Mang Inasal, CityMall, Hotel 101 and CentralHub network. We believe this step will further strengthen the market grip of all the industries that our group is involved in,” Edgar Injap Sia II said.

“Our family initially had no plans to expand the retail business, but our recent experiences made us realize the need for us to be in the modern retail business, and we believe we will be in it while the transition from traditional retail to modern retail is still ongoing. Moreover there are undeniable synergies between the real estate and retail businesses. I will be glad to see both DOUBLEDRAGON and MERRYMART to soon grow hand in hand and become formidable companies that will significantly contribute in building our Nation.”

“Our team will strive hard to make MERRYMART become one of the top 3 consumer companies in the Philippines by 2030,” he added.

MERRYMART Group will focus on sunrise consumer-related businesses in the long term as the company has full confidence in the long term prospects of the Philippines.