By James A. Loyola Leading food & beverage kiosk operator, Fruitas Holdings Inc., has crossed the 1,000 store mark with its aggressive store network expansion. As of November 26, Fruitas said it has 1,036 stores across the country, with new kiosks having recently opened in Metro Manila and key provinces such as Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Bulacan, Tarlac, Zambales, Cebu, Iloilo, Aklan, Davao and Cagayan De Oro. Last year, Fruitas ended with 930 stores nationwide. It ended June 2019 with 949 stores, but has since added 87 stores in less than 5 months. Fruitas has also re-launched Coffee Talk, a coffee and tea kiosk concept. With its re-launching, the Group reinforces its commitment to create new brands and concepts to cater to the evolving demand of Filipino consumers. The firm also recently started to sell some of its bottled fruit juices on open refrigerator shelves inside the supermarkets of Landmark. Fruitas will debut on the Philippine Stock Exchange today (November 29) under the ticker symbol “FRUIT”. The IPO was well-received by retail and institutional investors resulting in an oversubscription of the offering. Proceeds from the IPO will finance the company’s store network expansion and the improvement of existing stores. Raised funds will also pave the way for the introduction of new concepts and in the acquisition of future brands, commissary expansion and debt repayment. “We are happy with the results of the offering of Fruitas. The broker tranche was more than 2.5 times oversubscribed, while the local small investor tranche was a record amount for a Philippine IPO,” First Metro Investment Corporation Executive Vice President Daniel D. Camacho said. He noted that, “the exceptional performance and positive response from the market prove that the public believes in Fruitas’ strong fundamentals and aggressive expansion plans in the country.”