Chairman and CEO Joseph C. Franco. Photo by Ashley Manabat
CLARK FREEPORT – Oscor Mart is slowly creeping into the retail market chain presently dominated by 7-11, Family Mart, Alfa Mart, and Mini Stop convenience stores.
During the inaugural holding of the “Balitaan” media forum of the Capampangan in Media, Inc. for 2021 last Thursday at the Bale Balita here, Oscor Mart chairman and CEO Joseph Cruz Franco showed how he was able to established 60 stores in the country in just two years as he continues to attract more franchisees.
Franco said new innovations in his stores are forthcoming with his Oscor Mart all over the Philippines like Zamboanga, Davao, Cebu, Palawan, Laoag City, Bataan, Pampanga, and Ormoc City which has a store that reaches a gross sale of P80,000 to P100,000 per day even in this difficult pandemic era.
Franco said while most other companies are sulking during this pandemic, Oscor Mart continues to innovate.
He said he started with four companies under the Franco Group of Companies like the pharmacy, rice retailing or “bigasan,” bills payment, and food-to-go which are all carried by Oscor Mart. Then there is printing services, food supplements, and even the Eco Global, a company for online business which is now the trend like Lazada, Shopee, Amazon, ebay, etc.
“We also have an app store for online shopping for groceries and we partnered with J Express for deliveries with most of our stores located near tricycle terminals. The tricycle operators and drivers’ associations welcome the partnership because it adds up to their income, said Franco.
The Oscor Mart app is used for online grocery shopping which is a way of buying food and other household necessities using the internet which has become the new normal in the midst of the raging pandemic. It simply means shopping for groceries right in the comfort of your own home and then having them delivered at your doorstep, Franco explained.
He said other convenient stores offer scattered merchandise like candies, liquor or cigarettes once you come in but don’t have online shopping.
“We discovered that during the pandemic, the most saleable items are the essentials, but people are stuck in their homes. So, we develop an app for online shopping,” he noted.
“But most importantly, you have to locate your store where there is a huge volume of foot traffic,” Franco pointed out. The store should at least be 60 square meters.
The young business executive said Oscor Mart was initially “known for its food distribution business for suka (vinegar), patis (fish sauce), toyo (soy sauce) delivered nationwide.
Franco said In Pampanga, Oscor Mart has offices in the City of San Fernando near the Fernandino Hotel and two in adjacent Guagua town.
What is inside Oscor Mart?
“We have groceries, pharmacy products like medicines, bills payment like a Bayad Center. But unlike the latter which costs about P400,000 to establish and most of the time goes offline, the Oscor Mart bills payment is never offline because our system is managed by a big company,” Franco said.
Soon, Franco said, debit and credit card terminals will be installed in his stores as well as ATM machines.
For its product supply and for its deliveries, Oscor Mart partnered with Suy Sing Commercial Corp. which deliver the products to Oscor Mart locations at wholesale price.
But why Oscor Mart? A virtually unknown company which can even be described as a start-up.
Franco said it is “the strongest and most affordable in the Philippines.”
He disclosed that Oscor Mart only gets a royalty fee of only three percent from the net profit of the franchisee.
Franco explained that from the initial investment of P1.5 million, Oscor Mart will only get P250,000 as franchise fee which can be settled on the 4th month of actual operation.
But the most important thing, Franco said, is that its return on investment or ROI is only less than year which is already proven.
Franco said Oscor Mart will continue to innovate and make its products more affordable and convenient.
