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MegaFresh Supermarkets on track for continued growth

Some two years after opening shop, MegaFresh Supermarkets has continued growing as new stores are being incorporated, while implementing an “aggressive marketing plan” with the goal of expanding its consumer base.

With sales exceeding $100 million, MegaFresh Supermarkets “has positively impacted the island’s food industry,” MegaCoop and MegaFresh Supermarkets President Francisco Pérez Santiago, recently said.

“We have exceeded our own growth expectations,” Pérez said, while noting that unlike other supermarket chains, the MegaFresh Supermarkets cooperative store owners are also members of MegaCoop.

Describing MegaCoop as the “merchant’s cooperative,” Pérez explained that members also receive profits generated from stocks and sponsorships.

He explained, that MegaCoop created the MegaFresh Supermarkets through “a publicity department two years ago while the bank cooperative was founded in December 2013.” Initially, MegaCoop had had nine partners, currently it has more than 20 partners, Pérez assured.

“I am one of the founding partners of the cooperative,” Pérez stressed.

“MegaCoop is what we call the merchants cooperative. Our intention was to be able to unite different types of business models, or franchises so they could all buy under one warehouse.”

The different partners of MegaCoop, Peréz said, own diverse retail stores, such as bakeries, community drug stores, gas stations, and community supermarkets, among others.

“So we are talking about small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and then other entrepreneurs started to join, such as drug store owners, gas station owners, bakery owners, and other kinds of business owners that could find in our warehouse high quality products that are also known as fast movers,” he said.

The main warehouse is located at the Royal Industrial Park in Cataño consisting of some 10,000 square feet. Pérez said the group of partners is purchasing a second warehouse in the municipality of Carolina. The second warehouse consists of about 56,000 square feet, he said.

“We have about 32 partners that are part of our co-op, and about 22 partners have supermarkets that are part of MegaFresh Supermarkets,” he said. “But out of those 22 partners we have 26 stores because some of them have opened more than one supermarket.”

MegaFresh Supermarkets are located in the towns of Bayamón, Ciales, Comerío, Loíza, Río Grande, Lares, San Juan, Sabana Grande, Trujillo Alto, Vega Baja, Vega Alta and Toa Alta.

“In all those municipalities we have at least one MegaFresh Supermarket and in San Juan and Bayamón we have more than one supermarket,” he added.

Furthermore, the grocery chain plans to continue expanding to other towns on the island.

He said that some 3,000 direct and indirect jobs have been created in the past two years.

With regard to the global inflation costs, Pérez explained that belonging to MegaCoop has helped the grocery store owners to continue selling at cheaper prices than the competition.

“The co-op helps us because our main products are purchased at cheaper prices and at the same time we can pass on those lower costs to our clients,” Pérez added.

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This story was written by our staff based on a press release.
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