Posted on November 30, 2015
09:51:00 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]
By Krista A. M.
Montealegre, Senior Reporter
THE VILLAR group is ramping
up the expansion of its chain of full-service home furnishing stores AllHome
next year that may include its first branch outside Luzon.
Manuel B. Villar, Jr.,
chairman of All Value Holdings Corp., speaks at the opening of AllHome Vista
Place in Quezon City on Nov. 27.
All Value Holdings Corp.,
the holding firm for the group’s retail ventures, will open eight AllHome
stores starting March next year to end 2016 with 20 stores, the company’s
Chairman Manuel B. Villar, Jr. told reporters last Friday.
The planned new store
launches for next year have surpassed the project annual rollout of 6-7 stores
over the next five years that the former Senate president set in April.
“By end of next year, we’ll
have 20 stores. So it’s 12 plus 8. I’m just saying that as early March, we’ll
be starting the additional eight stores,” Mr. Villar said.
Since launching its first
store in 2013, AllHome quickly expanded in the metropolis. The newest branch,
the four-level AllHome Vista Place at the Wil Tower Mall in Quezon City, opened
last Friday evening.
Next year, AllHome may open
its first location outside Luzon, as it sets sights on key urban areas such as
Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro, Mr. Villar said.
The Villar group is being
guided by its partner HomePro, Thailand’s largest operator of home improvement
stores, for its AllHome venture
“They have 60 or 70
(stores). They are the number one player, way of ahead of the number two,” Mr.
Villar said, adding that the Thai firm has roughly $3 billion in market
capitalization.
He said in April its
one-stop shop for home construction, renovation and decoration needs may go
public once it reaches a network of 30-40 stores, which may likely be achieved
in the next three years.
The expansion of AllHome is
seen riding on the robust growth of the residential sector where Mr. Villar
also has an interest through Vista Land & Lifescapes, Inc., a leading
homebuilder in the country.
The billionaire is
consolidating his residential and commercial leasing businesses under Vista
Land in a deal valued at P33 billion, accelerating its transformation into one
of the Philippines’ biggest integrated property developers.
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