Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc., the retail holding company of the Gokongwei Group, registered a net income of P1.2 billion in the first quarter of the year, up 21.7 percent from the same period a year ago.
Robinsons Retail said in a disclosure to the stock exchange over the weekend core net earnings, excluded interest from bonds, equitized net earnings from the 40 percent stake in Robinsons Bank and unrealized forex gains and losses, increased 13.7 percent to P958 million from P842 million year-on-year.
First-quarter consolidated net sales expanded 12.6 percent to P29 billion from P25.7 billion a year ago, lifted by same store sales growth of 6.4 percent and contribution from new stores.
“The robust revenue growth was largely due to increase in sales volume from the full year sales contribution of the stores that opened in 2017 as well as strong same stores sales growth,” year-on-year said.
Robinsons Retail said all retail formats registered positive same store sales growth, substantially benefitting from the positive impact of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion law on consumption.
Among the company’s retail formats, specialty stores posted a 10.8-percent same store sales growth, followed by the supermarket segment at 8 percent, Do-It-Your-Own at 5 percent convenience stores at 5.5 percent, drugstores at 2.4 percent and department store at 0.9 percent.
The supermarket segment continued to be the group’s largest segment, accounting for 46.8 percent of consolidated net sales and 42.8 percent of the consolidated EBITDA.
Operating expenses rose 13.9 percent from P5.79 billion due to higher rent and utilities expenses and the accelerated store network expansion.
The company spent P683 million in capital expenditures in the first three months of 2018.
Robinsons Retail ended 2017 with a total of 1,715 stores, comprising of 154 supermarkets, 49 department stores, 195 do-it-yourself stores, 489 convenience stores, 487 drugstores and 341 specialty stores.
The figure is on top of the 2,031 franchised stores of the Generics Pharmacy chain. The group’s gross floor area, excluding TGP, expanded 8.7 percent year-on-year to 1.15 million square meters.
