Rustan’s Supermarket Relocates to Banawa
Rustan’s came to Cebu in the early 80s by putting up its own building along Gen. Maxilom Ave., within the Mango Plaza complex. The building housed its flagship department store in the upper three floors and a supermarket in the ground floor and a retail strip in the basement.
After a little more than 2 decades in operation, its supermarket closed shop in January 2006 following the closure of its department store five years earlier. The closure of its property in the Mango Plaza was partly due to the competition in the industry that severely affected their business. The proliferation of big malls across the city has somewhat lured their customers away who prefer one-stop shopping concept offered by large malls. Rustan’s is one of the anchor stores in Ayala Center Cebu since the mall opened in the early 90s.
Thus in early 2000, it closed its department store but kept its supermarket open. However, the sales had somewhat declined gradually through the years that operating the supermarket is no longer a viable business, at least in its present location.
But one Rustan’s official said that the supermarket industry in Cebu is far from being saturated and operating one is still a good venture to go into. He clarified though that one should find a perfect location, as any other business should, in order to make money.
So the company decided to relocate, they hope would be a better site for their supermarket business, to Banawa. Located within the sprawling Arcenas Estate, Rustan’s Supermarket hopes to regain Cebuanos consumers’ trust it once had kept for years. Arcenas Estate is a 30-hectare mixed-used real estate development in Banawa Hills in southwestern periphery of the city. The Estate also hosts, among others, residential developments such as Paseo San Ramon and Casa Rosita Homes and Covergys, a US-based outsourcing firm.
Rustan’s Supermarket will be the anchor store of Arcenas Estate’s commercial center development. It is cheduled to open in April this year.
March 1st, 2006 at 2:57 pm
it’s good that instead of closing down its operations in cebu, they’ll be relocating it to somewhere else. but, why in banawa? i believe banilad is a better alternative. to think that banawa is considered as an upscale location in cebu right now. admit it or not, rustans is an upscale brand in the retail business (either supermarket, department store, coffee or their store specialist entity)
March 2nd, 2006 at 8:21 am
rustan’s indeed is an upscale brand and its relocation site is simply a calculated move, to be near to its major market, the AB market. banilad may be a nice place to do business right now but supermarket business is somewhat unthinkable, considering the gaisano country mall’s huge supermarket and robinson’s supermarket in btc. so banawa i think is a perfect location for rustan’s supermarket.