The Lucio Co-led supermarket chain Puregold Price Club Inc. (Puregold) is looking to expand in the Visayas and Mindanao in 2013, as it opens its first two outlets in Mindanao and is eyeing six prospective areas in the Visayas.

Puregold President Leonardo Dayao told reporters on Thursday that in 2013, they will relatively focus in expanding in Mindanao and the Visayas.

“We will continue our expansion both organic and geographically, we should expand not only in number of stores but also geographically,” he said.

Puregold Investor Relations Chief Jimmy Perez also said in the same briefing that the firm is eyeing six prospective provinces in Visayas where they can put up several stores.

He said that those provinces are Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, and Samar. For Mindanao, Puregold will launch the close to 1-hectare Puregold store in Cagayan de Oro and the P1-billion S&R outlet in Davao, which signifies its plan to expand aggressively in the region.

“The next one for S&R is in Davao which is the first S&R in Mindanao and that will be this year, around April or May,” Dayao said.

As for the Puregold store in Cagayan de Oro, Dayao said that it might open in the third quarter of 2013.

He said that one of the reasons why Puregold is interested in expanding in the area is its geographical advantages.

“In Davao,, we can put up several [stores] for the city itself, same is true with Cagayan de oro,” Dayao added.

Puregold is also looking to build 25 stores per year starting this year as it plans to spend another P3 billion. Its capital spending in 2012 was also P3 billion.

As for the conversion of its recently acquired 19 Parco supermarkets into Puregold stores, Dayao said that they plan to spend 200 million those stores to be fully converted into Puregold branches.

In 2012, Puregold was able to build 31 stores all in all, nine of which are in Metro Manila, 11 in North Luzon, and the rest in Southern Luzon.

“Those new stores brought additional 45,000 square meters in the firm’s net selling areas,” Perez said.

Puregold currently has 131 stores plus 19 Parco supermakets, which are currently being converted into Puregold stores.

The firm also netted P1.802 billion in the third quarter of 2012, a 67-percent increase compared to what the company earned in the same period in 2011.

In terms of net profit margin, Puregold registered a 4.6-percent net profit margin as of the third quarter of this year, compared to the 4 percent of the same period in 2011.

Puregold also reported total net sales of P39.137 billion, an improvement of 45.2 percent compared to the P26.945 billion the company earned in the same period in 2011.