Philippine Seven Corporation, the local franchisor of the 7-Eleven chain of convenience stores, expects to invest around P2.5 billion with franchisees to open 500 more stores in Luzon over the next three years.

In an interview during the event marking the opening of the chain’s 500th store in the Philippines, PhilSeven president Jose Victor Paterno said they will reach 1,000 stores in about three years with at least 60 percent of the new stores to be owned by franchisees.

“We’re trying to raise the ratio of franchisees to company-owned stores,” Paterno said noting that the ratio overseas are much higher at 70 percent in the US, 85 percent in Taiwan and 98 percent in Japan.

So far, the firm has already opened 52 stores and plans to open at least 50 more, to breach its target of 100 new stores in 2010. Next year, the firm is planning to open about 130 stores at a cost of about P5 million per store.

Paterno said the target 1,000 stores will all be in Luzon although plans are afoot for the opening of stores in Visayas in Mindanao “soon.” He noted that logistics are a challenge outside Luzon since there are so many islands.

The ideal set up is to have 200 stores for every distribution center but, Paterno noted that not a single island outside Luzon has the population to support 200 stores.

On the other hand, he said there are still provinces in Luzon where the firm can expand to, such as in Ilocos and Bicol while areas they have already branched out to can still support more stores.

Paterno said that, with Luzon’s population of 50 million, there will still be a lot of room for growth even when they reach 1,000 stores since that will be equivalent to only one store for every 50,000 while the ideal will be one store for less than 5,000.

He said PhilSeven will continue to use its size to provide better service and products to its customers adding that they will develop more fresh food products in their commissaries.

7-Eleven Inc. senior vice president for international Chris Tanco said fresh foods sell better in all stores worldwide and these products also provide better margins than other merchandise.