Bona Coffee Holdings Corp. (Other OTC:BCHC.PK – News) announced that Bona Coffee Company Corp. has signed an agreement to open its third coffee shop in the Philippines. The newest addition to the company’s chain of coffee shops will be located in SM Prime Holdings’ Mall of Asia. The Bona Coffee Shop in the Mall of Asia is expected to be opened for business early in 2009. Bona Coffee Shops contribute 100 percent of any net profits to the parent company, BCHC.
Bona Coffee Company was approached by Mall of Asia to open a Branch in the Mall’s premier bayside promenade area overlooking the famous Manila Bay. Mall of Asia, owned and operated by SM Prime Holdings (listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange), is the largest mall in the Philippines and all of Asia, and is the third largest in the world, comprised of 386,224 square meters (4.15 million square feet, or 95.4 acres), and houses the largest selection of retail heaven under one roof. Mall of Asia has Manila’s first and only I-MAX Theatre as well as a thriving entertainment center. The mall attracts daily foot traffic of 200,000 people.
“Since we will be the only coffee shop open 24/7 in the area, we are gearing up for even greater sales and greater market share, because of the 200,000 a day foot traffic, early morning joggers, and the hundreds of call center agents who work around the clock at One E-Com center,” says BCHC’s President/CEO, Jose Luis Gonzalez.
One E-Com Center, which is SM Prime’s 10-story 105,857 square meter (1,139,000 square feet) building, is populated by IT-based locator companies and support offices for business process outsourcing. SM Prime, a unit of conglomerate SM Investments Corp. (listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange) which is controlled by Henry Sy, one of the Philippines’ richest men, said in a statement to the Philippine Stock Exchange that SMIC expects to spend P10 billion ($200 million) next year, up from P6 billion ($120 million) this year. SM Prime, which recorded a 9 percent increase in net income in the third quarter, also said that 70 percent of the 2009 capital spending plan would go to the construction of new shopping malls and expansion of existing ones.
