Top Line sees rapid expansion in 2025

Cebu-based fuel retailer Top Line Business Development Corp. expects to finish a “banner year” amid its rapid expansion in Central Visayas.

Eugene Erik Lim, Top Line chair, president and chief executive officer, said the group hopes to record a banner year as it moves to operate 50 stations by the end of 2025.

The executive noted that Top Line started with one to three stations last year.

“Most likely it can be because of the acquisition,” he told reporters.

The company disclosed it had earmarked P925 million to fund its expansion across the region, with about 40 fuel retail stations acquired across Leyte, Siquijor, Negros Oriental and Cebu.

Asked if they anticipated a strong demand from investors when Top Line made a stock market debut last April, Lim admitted that they did not expect the offer to oversubscribe given the recent developments in the global market, such as tariff woes.

The firm raised P732.62 million from the initial public offering.

“But we’re just probably in the right time. Possibly they saw the potential of the company,” he said.

“I think it’s possible because for the past several years, it’s been a while that there’s no provincial listing, because it’s always most likely in Metro Manila,” the official added.

Lim hopes that Top Line’s move to go public would also encourage other provincial companies, especially in Cebu and Mindanao, to follow suit.

Top Line opened the year with a 38-percent increase in its bottom line on strong fuel volume sales in the first quarter. In an earlier disclosure, the company said its net income increased to P37.9 million from P27.5 million.

Gross revenues also climbed by 36 percent to P1 billion from P738.7 million a year ago.

During the period, the Cebu-based firm sold about 21.8 million liters of liquid fuels compared to the 14.9 million liters sold in the same period in 2024.

Top Line said this was realized following the group’s expanded distribution network and boosted retail market penetration.