Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures, Inc. (PSE:PIZZA) opens its first Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken & Sauce Bar ‘Fly-Thru’ store in Metro Manila. The ‘Fly-thru’ store marks the 54th outlet of Peri-Peri.

Peri-Peri’s ‘Fly-thru’ store located in Vermosa, an emerging residential and retail lifestyle hub in Cavite, is another innovation by Shakey’s. As one of the first grilled chicken drive-thru outlets in the country, the company elevated the typical drive-thru experience with its promise of speed and the signature Peri-Peri ambiance.

A progressive outlet, the new Peri-Peri store was designed as a green and inclusive community store. It features eco-friendly paints made from natural pigments with sunblock technology that helps keep the store cool and save energy, solar-powered lights to reduce the outlet’s carbon footprint, and a home-grown culinary garden, adopting a more sustainable approach to food sourcing.

In a statement released by Shakey’s, President and Chief Executive Officer Vicente Gregorio said, “We are thrilled to announce another exciting store addition to the Peri-Peri Charcoal Chicken and Sauce Bar chain. In a span of 2 years since our acquisition in 2019, we have more than doubled Peri’s network and successfully delighted many guests. As we move forward in pursuit of sustainable growth, we will continue to leverage our strength in building innovative store formats and wow our guests with great experiences.”

Peri-Peri is Shakey’s Group’s second largest chain of restaurants. At acquisition, the chain had 23 stores in the metro. To date, Shakey’s has opened 55 outlets in the country.

Gregorio also shared the ‘secret sauce’ of Shakey’s for growth and expansion.

“We are aggressively expanding our store footprint in anticipation of the Philippine reopening. We are already seeing a resurgence in dine in but also believe that certain guest preferences will remain. Prioritizing convenience and safety is one of them. Thus, we are building stores that are flexible and can cater to both on- and off-premise dining,” Gregorio said.

According to Gregorio, all new stores being built demonstrate attractive box economics, even amidst the pandemic.

“The challenges that we hurdled during this pandemic were gargantuan, so the solutions needed to be of greater proportions. We’ve made structural changes and strategic pivots in the past 2 years, all of which enable us to build innovative yet cost efficient and profitable store formats that deliver fast payback,” Gregorio added.

Shakey’s continues to roll out its store expansion program in 2022. Last year, the company exceeded its initial commitment of opening 30 net new stores. Aside from Shakey’s and Peri-Peri store openings, Shakey’s also built the first independent R&B Milk tea store, a drive-thru outlet. The Company also relaunched Project Pie, an artisanal pizza concept.