By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter
BICOL’s leading restaurant chain, BIGGS, Inc. is planning to open 90 branches in Calabarzon, citing promising demand in the region.
“The bigger picture is the 10-year plan for 120 stores. The six-year plan is 55 stores. Around 90 are earmarked for Calabarzon, and then 30 for Bicol,” Emil Capili, chief operating officer of BIGGS, told BusinessWorld.
“Calabarzon is around 2.5 times the economy of Bicol. It is a big region,” he added.
He said the market in Metro Manila is too competitive for the company’s risk appetite.
“We saw that if we compete in Metro Manila, there are so many challenges and the risk exposure is very high. We saw that Calabarzon has unsatisfied demand (for) restaurants,” he said.
He said most restaurants in Calabarzon are quick-service, like Jollibee and McDonald’s, presenting an opportunity for homegrown brands like BIGGS.
He added that the chain is set to open a branch in Lucena City within the month.
“It will be our first branch in Calabarzon and Quezon Province and will be the biggest; it is 750 square meters,” he added.
After Lucena City, he said that the company is planning to open branches in the municipalities of Candelaria and Tiaong, also in Quezon Province.
He said that the company is hoping to triple its revenue after six years.
“Currently, our annual revenue is P1 billion. So the target for the next six years is to triple it to around P3 billion. That’s our goal,” he said.
“We plan to achieve that through setting up more stores. Every store that we establish is around P6 million per month of sales; that is around P72 million in additional sales annually,” he added.
He said that fast-casual and casual dining are among the restaurant industry’s growth segments.
“Normally, there are a lot of players here, like the Bistro Group and the Moment Group, because there are no barriers to entry,” he said.
He said that the casual dining segment is therefore “ripe for the picking” in the absence of a clear number one.