Wilcon Depot Inc., a home improvement and construction supply retailer, said it started seeing a rebound in earnings and is optimistic that this can be sustained for the rest of the year.
Wilcon chief operating officer Rosemarie Bosch-Ong said in a virtual press briefing sales recovered in June and were closer to the pre-COVID levels.
“We are confident that our growth will be sustained and that second half will be better than the first half of the year,” Bosch-Ong said.
She said while the recovery of Metro Manila stores were slow compared to those located outside Metro Manila, the company noted significant increase in sales for non-core products.
The company is confident that sales of core products like flooring, tiles and plumbing products would soon pick up once private construction was allowed to operate and public transpiration improved.
Wilcon is in the process of improving its e-commerce platform and recently completed the purchase of a new point-of-sale system that would be more suitable to a more advanced platform.
“We completed the purchase of a new e-commerce platform in the first quarter of 2020 and we expect the rollout of this new POS system to commence in the fourth quarter of this year,” Wilcon chief executive Lorraine Belo-Cincochan said.
Belo-Cincochan said the company opened four stores this year and would add two more outlets in the coming months to end the year with 63 stores. Wilcon also aims to open nine stores in 2021.
Next year’s openings will include medium-sized stores located in smaller cities.
