Pepsi PH posts 12% jump in net income

Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc. said profit in the nine months through September rose 12 percent to P780.74 million as sales improved, a filing at the Philippine Stock Exchange showed.

The company, which manufactures and sells popular carbonated and non-carbonated drinks like Pepsi, 7-Up, Tropicana and Gatorade, said net sales hit P16.59 billion during the period, up 16.5 percent. It said sales volume grew 21 percent from January to September and noted that gains came even during the third quarter, traditionally a slower period due to heavy rains and storms.

“The rainy months of the third quarter is normally off-peak for the beverage players but we managed to overcome this and outperformed the industry for yet another quarter,” Pepsi Philippines president Partho Chakrabarti said in statement.

The company noted that gross sales revenues, fueled by the high volume across major brands and categories like colas, reached P6.1 billion for the quarter and P19.4 billion for the nine-month period, up 16 percent and 17 percent, respectively.

Cost of sales, consisting mainly of raw and packaging materials, direct labor and manufacturing overhead costs, increased by 16 percent for the quarter and 17 percent for the nine-month period, it added.

“The company managed to improve income from operations by 12 percent for the quarter and 16 percent for the nine-month period despite increased spending for marketing and continuous investments in manufacturing and distribution assets,” Jika Dalupan, Pepsi Philippines vice president for corporate affairs and communications, said in the same statement.

“We are now seeing these investments bearing fruit for our business,” he added.

The company, partly owned by South Korean food and beverage giant Lotte Chilsung, recently expanded its product offerings with the launch of Tropicana Mango Twister.

It noted in its filing that gross profit reached P1.3 billion for the quarter and P4.4 billion for the nine-month period, up 12 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

Operating expenses remained manageable despite high capital expenditures and increased by 12 percent for the quarter and 16 percent for the nine-month period. Miguel R. Camus