Ministop Philippines will soon be wholly owned by the Gokongwei Group following its deal with Japan’s Ministop Co. Ltd. The group has big plans for the popular convenience store chain, including a rebrand.
Robinsons Convenience Stores Inc., the exclusive franchisee of Ministop in the Philippines under Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI), has bought out the remaining 40% of the interest held by the Japanese group.
RRHI in a meeting has revealed that they will continue to operate the Ministop brand until the agreed upon transition date with Ministop Japan. The group also needs time until the convenience stores are “repurposed and appropriately rebranded in consideration of strong ready-to-eat offerings such as Uncle John’s Fried Chicken and Kariman.”
Therefore, Filipinos can still expect the same Ministop brand that we always had until this year. RRHI President and CEO Robina Gokongwei-Pe said in a text message to the Inquirer that “We can use the Ministop brand the whole 2022.”
She further expressed the group’s plans of expanding the brand. She has further explained that “We want to do more than just be a store for ready-to-eat and groceries. We want to do more e-commerce and delivery. We want to expand our e-services and bills payment facilities, and add more stores as delivery pick-up points.”
Ministop is one of the largest convenience store names in the Philippines with 456 stores nationwide coming in second to 7-Eleven, which has 3,075 stores.
