Cebuana Lhuillier, the country’s leading micro financial services provider, continues its expansion streak following the opening of new branches across communities nationwide. The move is in line with the company’s commitment to bring its products to far-flung locations, especially in rural communities with limited access to financial services.
The network expansion is part of the company’s moves to further build its presence nationwide, particularly focusing on rural and hard-to-reach areas of the Philippines. With just 2,500 brick-and-mortar stores prior to the pandemic, the company now has more than 3,000 branches, with more expected to open for the rest of 2022. In the last two months alone, new branches were opened within Metro Manila and across the country, including Zambales, Agusan del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Zamboanga del Norte, Davao City, Davao del Sur, and Misamis Oriental, with more to come in the coming months.
“We have always been clear in our mission of providing Filipinos with accessible financial services. Part of that mission is to ensure that there will always be a Cebuana Lhuillier branch near them that will take care of their financial needs whenever they need them. Now, more than ever, we want to ensure that regardless of where our clients may be across the country, they have access to the efficient and innovative micro financial solutions that we offer,” shared Jean Henri Lhuillier, Cebuana Lhuillier president & CEO.
The nationwide expansion is most beneficial to countryside residents like Josephine Villegas, a barangay nutrition worker in Caba, La Union. The opening of the first-ever Cebuana Lhuillier in Caba allowed for a more convenient way to claim money remittances without having to travel via bus to the neighboring town of Aringay. “Ang pamasahe papuntang Aringay, 50 pesos pero papunta pa lang yun. Nung magkaroon na ng Cebuana dito sa Caba, hindi ko na kailangang magbyahe, walking distance na lang. Yung ipapamasahe naming, puwede na magamit pang-load o pambili ng bigas,” the mother of two shares.
With the new branch strategically situated at the back of the municipal hall and right in front of the town market, Josephine just needs to walk from their barangay to the town center for her financial needs.
“This is just the beginning of our expansion efforts as we continue to assert our dominance in the micro financial services business. More than just increasing the number of branches, we are also continuously looking to onboard new partners, while also launching new innovative solutions and digital products that would make accessing our services easy and convenient anytime, anywhere,” adds Lhuillier.
Cebuana Lhuillier is currently in the midst of a bullish push for dominance in 2022, setting its sights on further expanding its brick-and-mortar stores, while also looking into growing its number of partners and agents for its money transfers business. On top of its expansion efforts, the company has already on boarded a number of new partners and has launched Cebuana Xpress, its ultimate micro financial services app early in the year true to its promise of providing accessibility to its services anytime, anywhere, and everywhere for each and every one of its ka-Cebuanas nationwide.
