Fruitas to expand acquisition scope

Listed Fruitas Holdings Inc. (FHI) looks to widen the scope of its future acquisitions after it met its community store target for the year.

In a statement on Monday, the food and beverage kiosk operator said its board approved the change in scope of potential acquisitions and will not only be limited to food service moving forward.

“The Fruitas Holdings Board approved to remove the restriction of using the IPO (initial public offering) proceeds allocated to acquisitions solely on foodservice targets,” the company noted.

Fruitas added that the management authorized the evaluation of fundraising options, which includes notes, bonds and preferred shares, to seek longer-term capital.

“The food service and retail sectors are evolving quickly and we need to also adapt our acquisition criteria. However, we continue to focus on our customers and seek ways to further facilitate customers’ access to Fruitas and deepen our relationship with them. We will build on our strengths of operating a nationwide network of small footprint stores, and providing healthy and minimally processed products which provide happiness. We reiterate our vision to be ubiquitous in Filipinos’ daily lives,” FHI President and Chief Executive Officer Lester Yu said in the statement.

Fruitas also announced that it has achieved its year end target for its community stores with the opening of Soy & Bean in Suki Market in Quezon City.

The store serves as the 30th under the Babot’s Farm and Soy & Bean brands. Fruitas eyes to expand its community store network to 100 by 2021.

“We were able to build our community stores even during the quarantine and achieve our target within four months. We were also able to quickly adapt and widen our product range for such format. This is a testament to the nimbleness and depth of our organization. We believe that we are in stronger footing now with our community stores and delivery service which is accessible through phone, dedicated website and social media. We also continue to seek ways to add new revenue and profit streams,” Yu continued.

FHI was unprofitable in the first nine months of the year after recording a P32-million loss, despite a narrowed quarter-on-quarter loss.

The shares of FHI inched up by 1 centavo or 0.58 percent to close at P1.73 each on Monday.

Article and Photo originally posted by Manila Times last December 29, 2020 and written by Faye Almazan. Minor edits have been made by REBPH to cater to its own readers.