WILCON Depot Inc., the company that operates big box home improvement and construction supplies, said it will accelerate its expansion by at least a year as the Philippine economy continues to expand.
William Belo, the company’s chairman emeritus, said Wilcon hopes to establish 24 new depots through 2021. Out of these, the company has already put up nine, which leaves them 15 more to go.
“There’s no ideal number of stores. But we are expanding into all new areas where we don’t have a presence yet,” Belo said at the sidelines of the company’s stockholders’ meeting.
Belo, however, said the company is accelerating its expansion to keep up with the Philippine economy’s growth. He said the company hopes to build all 24 new stores by 2020.
This year it will put up nine stores and six stores next year. Each store costs about P180 million to P250 million to construct.
Belo said it will spend about P2.25 billion this year and P1.5 billion next year. Funding for the said capex will still come from the proceeds of its P6-billion initial public offering last year.
The company said the sites of these new stores have already been identified and locked in for lease.
“The remaining sites are a combination of new markets where no Wilcon store has operated previously and additional stores in existing markets that have room for expansion,” said Lorraine Belo-Cincochan, the company’s president and CEO.
“We believe the economy will bear us out and will continue in its growth path,” she said.
Most of the new stores are located in Luzon, including 14 new ones, six will be in Mindanao and four in the Visayas. The company hopes to have 65 branches in five years out of the current 44 as of last year.