Puregold net profit up 11.7% to P1.05B in Q1

Puregold Price Club Inc., the country’s second-biggest grocery store chain, said its net income rose in the first quarter of 2015 as sales increased.

Puregold said in a filing at the Philippine Stock Exchange yesterday that net income during the period hit P1.05 billion, up 11.7 percent compared to the same period in 2014.

Puregold, which mainly competes with the retail arm of Henry Sy’s SM Investments Corp., added that net margins for the quarter hit 5.1 percent, matching last year’s figure.

Net sales during the period rose 12.5 percent to P20.69 billion, the filing showed.  Puregold cited the “strong consumer demand” from its existing 233 Puregold stores, nine S&R membership stores and six S&R New York Style Pizza outlets.

Puregold said income from operations grew to P1.48 billion in the first quarter of 2015, up 9.3 percent compared to the same period in 2014.

“We are excited about the growth prospects for Puregold in 2015. During the first quarter, we have opened the first Lawson store in Sta. Ana, Manila, and have acquired the nine-store NE Bodega supermarket, two S&R QSR stores and four Puregold stores all outside Metro Manila,” Puregold president Leonardo Dayao said in the filing.

He said that Puregold’s same-store sales growth of 4.4 percent during the quarter was “better than our expectations.”

In end-2014, Puregold has a total of 248 stores with a net selling area of about 405,000 square meters. The company plans to open 25 Puregold stores in 2015 and two more S&R outlets, which does not include potential acquisitions for the year, Dayao said previously.