MANILA - Shakey's Pizza Asia Ventures Inc on Tuesday said it aims to strengthen further its "off-premise" offerings to drive growth as the Covid-19 pandemic kept diners at bay.

Al fresco dining, park and order, rolling stores called "Shakey's on Wheels" are just some of the "off-premise" options the country's largest casual dining restaurant brand employed to boost sales.

"We’re looking at just focusing on the off-premise business because the dine-in business has gone done. Safety remains a major concern. The whole group is adapting to these changes and (so are) consumers," said Vic Gregorio, Shakey's Pizza Asia Ventures president and CEO on ANC.

Shakey's Pizza said enhancing its delivery services and contactless solutions infrastructure even prior to the pandemic helped it navigate the current crisis.

“About 30-40 percent of our revenues and sales were off premise before Covid. Majority of our business is still dine-in, but things have changed because of the crisis,” Gregorio said.

Metro Manila, which accounts for a third of the economy and home to a tenth of the country's 100 million people, is under general community quarantine (GCQ) until Sept. 30.

Restaurants under GCQ can accommodate dine-in customers at limited capacity.

“Everything remains to be very fluid and hard to predict how the balance of the year would go. But with GCQ in NCR, there are signs of improvement and we’re kind of hopeful," he added.

The Shakey's Pizza group operates 279 stores nationwide.

It also recently inked a deal to bring Singapore's R&B milk and bubble tea brand in the country, capitalizing on a growing local milk tea market.

• Shakey's enters milk tea market, inks deal with Singapore's R&B Tea
• Shakey's eyes 'gradual' re-opening as coronavirus lockdown enters fourth week

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