MerryMart Consumer Corp., a company led by businessman Edgar Sia II, on Wednesday said it signed a deal with Foodpanda Philippines to operate what it called a “dark grocery” store concept in the country.
The “dark grocery” store concept is a dedicated online shop for grocery items that offer a 15-minute delivery service within a specific area. The new business will be operated by its unit MerryMart Grocery Centers Inc. and Panda Mart, Foodpanda’s instant grocery delivery services.
The first two online stores are set to start operations in Makati City and Manila next month, the company said.
“This concept is a real game changer in the online grocery space, imagine being able to buy exactly what you need, when you need it, and for it to arrive at your doorstep in a very short span of time. We are glad to join forces with the global delivery platform Foodpanda to power this ‘dark grocery’ store concept as they are the leaders in the online food delivery space,” Sia, the company’s chairman, said.
“These dark grocery stores will generally be located in select hidden locations and are exclusively intended for online deliveries, we see this initiative to complement the expansion of the brick-and-mortar MerryMart branches which will serve both delivery and walk-in customers.”
The said concept, however, is not new to the Philippines as there are already a number of mobile phone applications that are already catering to such segment of grocery delivery, including Honestbee that shut down its operations last year, MetroMart, and Lazada’s LazMart.
MerryMart has a total of 11 operational branches and targets to end the year with 25 branches. It aims to open its 100th branch by December 2021.
The company is targeting to cover all the grocery retail categories from small, medium and large grocery retail formats.
MerryMart reported a 24-percent increase in its net income in the first half to P13.67 million, from last year’s P11.03 million.
Revenues for the period grew 35 percent to P1.64 billion from last year’s P1.21 billion last year.
Foodpanda Philippines has over 20,000 riders and is present in 71 cities across the country. The company is operated by the Berlin-based Delivery Hero SE which operates in 51 countries.