By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter
EIGHT8ATE Holdings, Inc., which controls the Wendy’s and Conti’s restaurant brands, said the bulk of its new locations are scheduled to open in the fourth quarter, traditionally the strongest period for the food and beverage industry.
“For Wendy’s and Conti’s, about 70% of our expansion will open towards the last quarter of the year… between the two brands, we have about 20 plus stores opening in the next three to four months” President and Chief Executive Officer Joey R. Garcia told reporters on the sidelines of the Franchise Asia Philippines 2024 International Conference.
The quarter “is when we can generate more revenue towards the Christmas season,” Mr. Garcia said.
After the fourth-quarter openings, Wendy’s will have a store network of over 80. Conti’s will have eight to 10 additional stores, he said.
According to Mr. Garcia, 80% of the new stores will open outside the National Capital Region.
“Majority of the expansion is actually in the second-tier cities and the provinces,” he added.
Eight8Ate is also readying a coffee concept to carry the Conti’s brand.
“It is actually … the next generation of Conti’s and the first branch will open in Clark,” he said. “This is our first venture now into that next level of Conti’s… We hope this will happen by December.”
Chris Lim, chairman of the Philippine Franchise Association (PFA), said that expansions outside Metro Manila are also the trend for other franchise brands.
“Even for the PFA, our activities have actually been outside. So, we had the big expo here where we all met each other in April. But since then, we’ve done one in North Luzon in Clark, and then one in Cebu. We’re going to do another one in Bacolod,” Mr. Lim said.
“There is really a shift in looking at expanding outside Metro Manila, and that’s where the growth areas are. So, we have a big push there — outside Metro Manila,” he added.
He added that many franchise brands have reached pre-pandemic levels in terms of number of stores and revenue.
“There’s no count, in terms of the number of stores, but at the very least, in terms of sales, I’d say a lot would have recovered,” he said.
He said that many franchise brands took the opportunity to axe stores during the pandemic.
“Some would have permanently decided not to reopen the stores … So whether the number of stores has recovered or not, I don’t have an exact figure,” he said.
“I’d be surprised if they haven’t, but I think (a more important) metric is that most of the brands recovered their system-wide sales,” he added.