Lucio Co-led supermarket chain Puregold Price Club, Inc. (Puregold), in accordance with its plan to expand more this year, has acquired Company E Corp. stores, which owns four Eunilaine foodmarts and 11 Grocery E supermarkets.

The firm’s disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday said that Puregold acquired four operating Eunilaine foodmarts and 11 operating Grocery E supermarts from Company E Corp.

“The acquisition shall be via the purchase by Puregold of all the outstanding shares of stocks of the said selling company,” the disclosure said.

The 15 Eunilaine foodmarts and Grocery E supermarts are distributed as follows: seven in Metro Manila; six in Rizal province; and two stores in Cavite province.

Jimmy Perez, Puregold investor relations officer, said that they are looking to rebrand the 15 Company E stores to Puregold stores.

Earlier this month, Puregold said that it is looking to expand in the Visayas and Mindanao in 2013, as it opens its first two outlets in Mindanao and eyeing six prospective areas in the Visayas.

The year 2013 will mark the entry of Puregold in Mindanao, with the opening of the S & R store in Davao City and the Puregold hypermarket in Cagayan de Oro City.

Puregold President Leonardo Dayao earlier told reporters that for 2013, the company will relatively focus on 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.

Perez also said that Puregold is eyeing six prospective provinces in the Visayas where it can put up several stores.

He said that those provinces are Panay, Negros, Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, and Samar. For Mindanao, Puregold will launch the nearly one-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.

Puregold closed 2012 with 156 stores in operation, consisting of 131 Puregold hypermarkets, supermarkets and extras; 19 Parco supermarkets; and six S&R warehouse membership shopping clubs.

 The footprint of the retail stores of Puregold is as follows: 77 in Metro Manila; 45 in South Luzon; 33 in North Luzon; and one in the Visayas. Puregold is indicatively targeting to open 25 new Puregold stores and one new S&R warehouse membership shopping club in 2013.

Also, all the Parco supermarkets will be re-branded to Puregold in 2013.