The bestselling ready-to-eat offerings of Ministop Philippines are here to stay.
The popular convenience store assured its patrons that it will still carry its bestselling products amid recent changes in ownership.
Ministop, a member of leading Japanese retail group Aeon, previously announced that it is pulling out its counterparts in the Philippines and South Korea.
Ministop Korea will be sold to Lotte, a multinational brand in the East Asian country.
Ministop Philippines, on the other hand, will be sold to Robinsons Retail Holdings after the latter bought the remaining 40% of its shares from the Japanese company.
Following this development, patrons of Ministop in the country were worried that they would have to say goodbye to the store’s bestselling Uncle John’s Fried Chicken, kariman and other food products.
In a Facebook post on Monday, January 24, Ministop Philippines allayed their concerns and announced that it will continue to carry these crowd-favorites in the future.
It also pledged to offer better products and services in the market in the future.
“Our stores will continue to carry our bestsellers such as #UncleJohnsFriedChicken and #Kariman,” the post read.
“We will diversify and improve on our ready-to-eat menu and offer new products to the market. Aside from that, customers can also rely on our convenient #ServEase and bills payment facilities,” it added.
Ministop also asked its patrons to stay tuned for more updates this year.
Fans welcomed this update from the well-loved convenience store. The post earned more than 1,900 reactions wherein 1,200 of them were heart emojis and 684 were likes.
It also garnered nearly 800 shares on the social networking site.
The comments section was filled with GIFs and messages of cheers for the convenience store.
A Twitter user also shared how important some Ministop branches are to patrons.
“Kung ano man ang ipapalit sa MiniStop Maginhawa, I think the place will still be called MiniStop for a long time. A terminus for trikes. A geographical marker. A place of hellos and see you again,” the Twitter user said.
Some Facebook users, on the other hand, suggested witty names for Ministop’s rebrand.
“Robinson stop and shop,” a Facebook user commented.
“MiniGo,” another Facebook user suggested.
“Uncle John’s na lang. Homage to the founder,” another Facebook user said, referring to the fried chicken brand being sold by the convenience store.
Rebrand plans
In a statement, Robinsons Retail said that its 40% acquisition of the brand therefore made Robinsons Convenience Stores Inc. (RCSI) the “exclusive franchisee” of Ministop in the country.
“Under the new agreement with Ministop Japan, RRHI (Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc.) will continue to operate the stores using the Ministop brand within the transition period agreed upon with Ministop Japan until they are repurposed and appropriately rebranded in consideration of strong ready-to-eat offerings such as Uncle John’s Fried Chicken and Kariman,” the statement read.
Robina Gokongwei Pe, RRHI president and CEO, also thanked the Japanese company for their long-time partnership.
“I would like to thank Ministop Japan for our partnership over the years. Under the Ministop banner we were able to bring to the public well-loved products and essential services,” Gokongwei said.