Shakey’s group to open one store a day this year

MANILA -- The Shakey’s group in the Philippines is targeting to open at least one store a day this 2025, a repeat of its achievement last year.

Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc. President and CEO Vicente Gregorio said the group now has 2,619 stores globally with 478 stores opened in 2024 alone. This year they eye to add a total of 420 stores which include both restaurants and kiosks.

“We’re targeting to open at least more than one store a day for this 2025. We already did that 400 plus last year. We’re on track on this year,” said Gregorio at an online press conference following the company’s Annual Stockholders Meeting.

The group is composed of Shakey’s, Potato Corner, Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken, R&B Milk Tea, and Project Pie.

Group Chairman Christopher Po said they will recycle their income last year to finance what he calls their ambitious store opening plan this year. “Our net income last year was a little over a billion, P1.2 billion. But our capex this year is also a billion. We’re definitely in investment mode.”

They will continue to open more branches in the Philippines especially in the second half of the year. But the company is also targeting to further expand abroad, particularly for the Potato Corner, which is now in several countries and is also eyeing Taiwan and Laos next.

“We are excited about the potential of our international division… Still an investment mode, but the potential of one of our brands, Potato Corner, has already been proven. We’re already in 15 markets outside the Philippines,” Gregorio said.

Po added that their international business is growing faster than its domestic business. The international unit accounts for about 20% of the business and they expect that to grow even bigger in the coming years.

Po said aside from expanding a Filipino brand to other countries, their overseas expansion is also a strategy.

“It diversifies us geographically. So now we won’t be totally reliant on the Philippine market and we would be able to take advantage of growth opportunities in other parts of the world… The peso can be volatile. So certain times it’s also good to have non-peso related revenues. It’s quite strategic or us.”

The company hit P1.2 billion net income in 2024, the second straight year it reached the billion peso mark. System-wide sales also grew 17 percent to P21.7 billion.