Food ingredients and biodiesel producer D&L Industries Inc. said Tuesday its new Batangas manufacturing plant turned profitable after less than a year of commercial operations.
D&L president and chief executive Alvin Lao said in virtual briefing the Batangas facility booked a P149-million profit in the second quarter of 2024.
This boosted the company’s first-half results by 6 percent to P1.32 billion.
“The second quarter of this year marks the turning point in our Batangas operations as it booked a quarterly profit for the first time since we started commercial operations in July 2023. As we further ramp up operations and onboard new customers, we see gradually increasing earnings contribution from this new plant over time,” Lao said.
“For this year, we are keeping our guidance at low double-digit growth in earnings. At the same time, we continue to monitor macro developments that may potentially dampen business sentiment such as the higher-for-longer interest rates, lingering effects of inflation, depreciating peso and even the potential hard landing or recession in the US,” Lao said.
Lao said while the utilization rate of Batangas remained under 50 percent, it was expected to ramp up production on the back of strong exports in the coming months. The new plant fulfilled several orders for both local and export customers.
Export sales surged 75 percent year-on-year in the first half. Export sales as a percentage of total sales reached 33 percent in the first half, at par with the record-high export sales contribution in 2021.
The P10-billion Batangas plant started commercial operations in July 2023.
