Puregold Plans To Acquire S&R

MANILA, Philippines - Newly listed supermarket chain Puregold Price Club Inc. is planning to acquire, or merge with, sister company S&R Membership Shopping.

Both firms are controlled by businessman Lucio Co.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Puregold said its board has approved the request of the management and granted it authority to start study and discussion with S&R's management for the possible acquisition or merger.

S&R is a membership-shopping club modeled after the warehouse membership shopping chains introduced in the United States. It now has six branches in the Philippines, of which four are in Metro Manila and one each in Pampanga and Cebu.

The core concept is to deliver local and imported products to member-customers through an effective and efficient system anchored on aggressive buying, low-cost distribution and streamlined operations.

Puregold recently opened its 101st store in La Trinidad, Benguet. This store, a hypermarket, is the first of the 25 store the firm plans to open in 2012.

Puregold plans to double the number of its stores by 2015; as it saturates further into the untapped Metro Manila and the Luzon areas. It also plans to expand into Visayas and Mindanao.