SM Investments Corp. is beefing up investments in logistics to help spur more economic activity outside Metro Manila, where the parent company of the SM Group sees strong potential to drive future growth of its diverse businesses.
The group’s investments in logistics are primarily lodged in 2GO Group and Airspeed.
“Logistics plays a crucial role in the delivery of goods and services to the people especially with increased economic action,” said SM Investment president and chief executive officer Frederic DyBuncio in a statement.
“There is a lot of potential especially in Luzon outside of the NCR as well as in Visayas and Mindanao where there is still a need to access modern trade. And it’s not just for our core businesses of retail, banking and property but also for our portfolio companies,” he added.
2GO Travel serves Visayas and Mindanao with routes in key cities in the region, including Butuan, Cebu, Cagayan De Oro and Ozamis. It has strategic logistical hubs that handle cold chain requirements for food shipments from the Visayas and Mindanao to Manila and the rest of Luzon while its Less-than-Container-Load shipside services provide micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises with opportunities to scale by transporting time- and temperature-sensitive goods nationwide.
2GO has a fleet of 3,000 couriers servicing Visayas-Mindanao transfers.
Airspeed, meantime, is taking strategic steps to position its Cebu warehouse as a central point for its future growth. The company is developing hubs in other cities in Visayas and Mindanao while opening more kiosks and forging partnerships with other service providers.
Aggressively expanding to the provinces is a strategy that extends to all businesses of SM Investments.
Goldilocks, the bakeshop chain that is part of SM’s investment portfolio, already located 40 percent of its new stores in the Visayas and Mindanao, particularly in areas that has showed strong growth.
In retail, SM Investments said, around 89 percent of the 419 new retail stores opened in 2023 are located in provincial areas.
Expansion is also geared towards growing with local communities to benefit their economy and ever-changing lifestyles. Its property arm SM Prime Holdings, Inc. opened three new malls in 2023—SM City Bataan, SM Center San Pedro in Laguna and SM City Sto. Tomas in Batangas.
SM Development Corp. is building more residential communities with 20 projects in the provinces (or outside Metro Manila) as of December 2023 namely in Pampanga, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite, Laguna, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Iloilo and Bacolod.
In banking, BDO Unibank‘s presence in the regions is extensive with 1,101 branches in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao out of the total 1,720 branches as of end-2023. BDO’s community bank, BDO Network Bank also continues to reach remote communities through branch expansion in the provinces.
China Banking Corporation likewise has a wide footprint in the provinces. Out of its 648 branches, 300 are outside Metro Manila. In addition to the regular branches, its thrift bank subsidiary China Bank Savings (CBS) has a provincial network of 94 branch lites and lending centers to date and continues to expand its brick-and-mortar presence in Visayas and Mindanao with the aim of delivering both traditional and digital banking services to customers.
“We view the regions as a bright spot for growth with the diverse products and services that we offer to consumers. We believe that there’s so much more opportunities for us to be able to provide better services to the Filipino people in the regions,” DyBuncio said.
