MANILA - Fruitas Holdings Inc is touting the health benefits of its fresh, fruit-based products as urban dwellers ride out the spread of the 2019 coronavirus disease, its founder said Tuesday.

Fruitas, which operates 20 brands including Johnn Lemon, Juice Avenue and Buko Loco, considers itself lucky to have entered the market as Filipinos shift to healthier lifestyles, said founder and CEO Lester Yu.

"If you eat healthy, you drink fresh, the immune system will fight and kill the virus," Yu said in an exclusive interview with ANC's The Boss.

"It’s clear that specially at his time, fresh and healthy products are clear winners," Yu said.

The Fruitas network of over 1,000 kiosks nationwide "felt little impact" from COVID-19 in the first few weeks of February as foot traffic in malls declined, director and chief financial adviser Calvin Chua said.

Its food park business on the other hand, "hasn't seen any impact yet" as consumers prefer to visit open-air public spaces, he said.

"We feel our product is strong and they actually fulfill a need at this time, providing fresh and healthy products and we see it as a mission to make sure these fresh and healthy products get to more Filipinos now," Chua said.

• Fruitas Holdings acquires coconut water delivery service

Fruitas recently acquired delivery service provider CocoDelivery to strengthen it's logistics expertise and to cater to the changing behavior of Filipino consumers, Chua said.

"The thousand stores will now not only serve stores but will become hubs to fulfill delivery orders of customers," he said.

Chua said the group planned to "double" its fleet of 19 drivers in the next few months.

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All of Fruitas’ deals are “jackpot acquisitions" like Sabroso Lechon which it bought for P28 million and has generated about P120 million sales in 2019 despite the African Swine Fever (ASF), Yu said.