In the Philippine retail sector, convenience is on the rise. But in the first quarter of 2026, profitability belonged to the supermarket. In the theatre of Philippine consumer retail, Philippine Seven has the more glamorous stage. Its 7-Eleven stores glow late into the night, scattered across city corners, provincial highways, and residential clusters. By the end of March 2026, the company operated 4,575 stores after opening 98 and closing 14 during the quarter, and it still aimed to reach 5,000 stores by year-end. Yet the quarter’s more compelling business story was not written under fluorescent convenience-store signage. It was written in the aisles of Puregold , where baskets are larger, supplier rebates matter, and operating leverage does what it's supposed to do. In the first quarter of 2026, Puregold Price Club decisively outperformed Philippine Seven in profitability , even as both companies benefited from resilient Filipino consumption. The headline numbers tell t...
Philippine Seven’s sales machine is humming again. Its cash machine, for now, is working harder than it looks. At first glance, Philippine Seven Corporation’s first quarter looked like the sort of result a retailer might happily place near the till: more customers, more stores, more sales. Systemwide sales rose by 13.2% to ₱26.09bn , while revenue from contracts with customers climbed 14.2% to ₱24.84bn . Same-store sales growth, the industry’s favored test of whether existing shops are doing more than merely existing, rebounded to 4.4% , a sharp reversal from the 1.2% decline recorded a year earlier. Net income, too, rose—though by a more modest 4.7% to ₱628.8m . But retail is a business of small margins and large numbers. In the Philippine Seven’s case, the large numbers are getting larger, and not all in the right places. The company’s general and administrative expenses rose 19.2% to ₱7.48bn , handily outpacing revenue growth. What the top line gave, utilities, manpower, logis...