Puregold doubles Q1 profit to P962M

Retailer Puregold Price Club doubled its net profit in the first quarter from a year ago as sales grew alongside the expansion of its store network while margins improved despite stiff competition.

Puregold’s consolidated net profit in the first three months jumped 105.3 percent year-on-year to P962 million, the company said in a disclosure Tuesday.

This was achieved on the back of a 49.8-percent growth in consolidated net sales to P16.09 billion. Apart from growing its volume, Puregold improved its net profit margin to 6 percent from 4.4 percent a year ago.

Upscale S&R warehouse membership shopping club contributed 36.4 percent of the consolidated net income after tax.

The 49.8-percent growth in consolidated net sales for the quarter was principally due to the 18.2-percent jump in sales turnover of the 159 Puregold and Parco stores operating as of the end-March. The six S&R warehouse clubs and the 15 Company E-stores contributed 16.4 percent and 1 percent, respectively, of the consolidated net sales.

In the first quarter, Puregold opened nine new stores out of the initial target of 25 new stores for the whole year. These consisted of five hypermarkets and four supermarkets and located as follows: four in South Luzon, four in North Luzon and one in Metro Manila.

As of the end of March, 10 former Parco stores were already re-branded into Puregold formats: four into hypermarkets, five into supermarkets and one into an extra store. Two Company E stores from the acquisition concluded last January were already re-branded into Puregold supermarket and Puregold extra. Doris C. Dumlao