CASUAL clothing retailer Golden ABC Inc., known for its local brands such as Penshoppe and Regatta, announced expansion of store network both here and overseas but still shuns listing at the stock market or raising debt through bond float.
Bernie Liu, Golden ABC president and CEO, said the company made some P4 billion in sales last year. The sales came mostly still from the local market, according to him.
“I think [becoming public] is something that is something inevitable. But I think the question is when it is happening. I’m sure it’s not happening this year. Going [public] is the million-dollar question that people had been asking us,” Liu told reporters on Friday.
“But it will happen when we are ready. At this point in time we would like to focus on what we want to do.”
With its portfolio of six brands, the company has around 600 stores in the country and it will increase its store count overseas to about 50 from the current 30.
“While it takes a lot of effort to maintain [that number of] stores, making sure that these 600 are constantly filled with merchandise, and the right products that our customer needs is also a challenge,” he said.
Liu added that 70 percent of the company’s products are still sourced locally, while the rest came from countries like China.
Overseas, Golden ABC intends to focus on Southeast Asia with an eye to increase overseas contribution to sales to 10 percent of total.
The company, which started operations in Cebu in 1986, has branches in Indonesia, Cambodia, and the Middle East countries of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates.
“We are now focusing on Asia. Our own Asean integration is happening within the year. We hope to be present in five or six of the 10 [Asean countries] very soon. So we would like to take advantage of the Asean economic community first,” Liu said.
He said the company will focus on selling local brands, while bringing in an international clothing brand in the country is not in Golden ABC’s priorities at the moment.
Liu said local retailers have an edge over the competition with its know-how of the other areas of the country.
“Well I suppose they [foreign brands] are concentrated here in Manila. But outside Manila, the earning opportunity of the population is also rising. So there are now opportunities for people outside Metro Manila to be able to enjoy what their fellow Filipinos enjoy in the Metro Manila,” he said.