McDonald’s stores tap Converge

By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan

Converge ICT Solutions Inc.

said on Monday it has partnered with golden Arches Development Corp. (g A DC), the master franchisee of McDonald’s in the Philippines, to provide more of its stores with fiber connectivity.

McDonald’s Philippines has been a client of Converge since 2015. It has since tapped Converge to power nearly 40 percent of over 700 McDonald’s restaurants across the country. our continued partnership with McDonald’s Philippines exemplifies our mission with Philippine businesses: to digitally transform their operations to elevate their competitive edge and customer service as they expand their businesses. We are glad to walk hand-in-hand with McDonald’s Philippines in their digital transformation journey and cement their reputation as a technologyenabled fastfood giant,” said Converge Ceo and Co-Founder Dennis Anthony Uy.

Converge also supported McDonald’s Philippines’ digital transformation journey, the development of nX Tgen stores. These stores feature split counters, digital menu boards, self-order kiosks. nearly 60 percent of all McDonald’s Philippines’ branches are considered n X Tgen outlets. “Converge provides a wide range of options that allows us to determine the most optimal connection at each Converge-enabled restaurant. This in turn provides a better experience for both our customers and employees,” said McDonald’s Philippines President and Ceo Kenneth Yang.

As of April, Converge has a pure fiber footprint of over 646,000 kilometers with 8 million ports across the Philippines, reaching 15.9 million homes or a total of 60 percent of Filipino households.

In May, Converge announced that it plans to grow its prepaid subscriber base to 3 million in as early as three years, with the segment expected to become much bigger in base than postpaid fiber broadband.

In a press briefing, Converge President grace Uy said the group will put “prime focus” on expanding the company’s new service called Surf2Sawa, the company’s prepaid fiber-to-thehome (FTTH) sachet plan, which targets the lower-income markets. For 2023, Converge hopes to reach 120,000 prepaid subscribers by endDecember.

By Andrea E. San Juan @andreasanjuan

Con S T r U CTI o n supplies retailer Wilcon Depot Inc. is urging the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to look into the backlog of import commodity clearance (ICC) certificates, saying it is one of the company’s “operational pain points.” rosemarie B. ong, Wilcon’s senior executive vice president and Coo, said the delays in the issuance of ICCs prevents the firm from moving its products and serving the local market.

According to the website of DTIBureau of Philippine Standards (BPS), importers of products covered by the BPS mandatory certification are required to obtain ICC before they can distribute their products in the Philippines.

“The ICC certificate and the corresponding ICC stickers are issued to an importer once its imported products have shown conformance to relevant standards through inspection, verification, and product test- ing by the BPS Testing Laboratory or BPS-recognized testing laboratory,” BPS said. ong noted that a Wilcon store that houses thousands of stock-keeping units will have to secure ICCs for each product category.

“our sector does not sell fastmoving goods. We have tiles, sanitary wares, and (we stock goods) for two, three or every 5 years because our products don’t become obsolete and they never go out of fashion.”

The Wilcon executive made the plea during a recent forum organized by the Makati Business Club (MBC), with Trade and Industry Secretary Alfredo e Pascual as its guest.

She said the company has written to the DTI chief to inform him about the difficulties it encounters in securing ICC certificates.

“All of us want to comply. However, I think the issue we’re facing is that...it takes (the DTI) a while to issue a certificate. We need the certificate to be able to move our products.”

For his part, Pascual vowed to look into the matter and to review the process of securing the ICC certificate.