Conti's, Wendy's to open more stores this year
Udenna Group's food and restaurant venture arm Eight8Ate Holdings Inc. said multiple store openings for its brands, Conti's Bakeshop and Restaurant and fast food chain Wendy's, are in the pipeline this year.
Eight8Ate President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Joey Garcia told reporters on April 12 that six Conti's stores and 15 Wendy's branches are set to open within 2024.
The first of the six Conti's stores are already serving customers in Batangas City as of April 13, while two of the 15 Wendy's stores have also begun operations.
As the firm targets their expansion to key provincial cities, Conti's aims to increase stores to 80 while Wendy's to 86-90 stores.
Garcia said that they remain to have opportunities to bring Conti's to other parts of the Philippines, seeking to expand to the Bicol region and the far north in Ilocos, while Wendy's is looking to set up shop in Visayas and Mindanao.
There used to be Wendy's branches in the VisMin regions, but they were closed under the brand's previous management and operator. Since the lease for the branches' lots have expired, the firm will need to start from scratch, Garcia noted.
Majority of the Wendy's branches are company-owned, with the rest operated by franchisees. All Conti's stores are company-owned.
Despite announcing additional store openings, Garcia said they are also focusing on renovating their stores, such as eight Conti's branches, with an average cost of P3 million per store.
"Our strategy for the year is really to limit the number of stores that we're opening, but do a lot of renovations for the old stores. There's no need for a rebrand, but more of facelifting," he said.
Going global is also on the radar, but not on the table.
"We've done a bit of study, try to understand the US market, but we have no plans yet to go outside because our opportunities locally are big at this point in time. But if ever there's an opportunity [overseas], at least we understand," explained Garcia.
If ever they do begin expansion into foreign markets, he said the ideal scenario would be to find a partner, with Eight8ate serving as master franchiser. The alternative would be to start your own business in the chosen overseas market.
In terms of widening its portfolio, he noted that they are putting more of their resources on their existing brands, hence the openings and renovations.
However, he noted that they have a smaller brand under their wing, kiosks Better Coffee with only four stores, but which they're developing and hoping to establish before further expanding.