Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. said profit rose 21.9 percent to P4.34 billion in 2015, as more stores brought in the sales.
In a stock exchange filing Wednesday, Robinsons Retail said in the fourth quarter alone, consolidated net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company grew 12.7 percent to P1.37 billion.
Its full-year core net earnings, which excludes interest income on bond investments, equitized net earnings from its 40-percent stake in Robinsons Bank and foreign exchange gains or losses, increased by 5.8 percent to P3.63 billion.
The company said net sales in 2015 hit P90.88 billion, up 13 percent.
The company said this was due to the sales contribution from 179 new stores in 2015, the full-year sales contribution from 263 stores that were opened in 2014 and the “strong” same store sales growth of 4.1 percent, which breached its 2 percent to 3 percent target for the year.
“We have also gotten into a good start this 2016 with solid [same store sales growth] for the first two months of the year as we benefited from increased consumer spending from a still robust domestic economy,” Robina Gokongwei-Pe, Robinsons Retail president and chief operating officer, said in the filing.
“We would continue with our footprint expansion, with focus on areas outside Metro Manila. Looking for potential mergers and acquisitions continues to be part of our strategy in growing the business,” she added.
The company broke down growth in terms of same store sales through the following: supermarket growth at 3.3 percent, department stores at 5.5 percent, DIY (do-it-yourself) at 5 percent, convenience stores at 5.4 percent, drugstores at 3.3 percent and speciality stores at 4.9 percent.
The company had a total of 1,506 stores at the end of 2015. It spent P4.24 billion in capital expenditures for 2015, which includes the acquisition of 25 stores of Savers Appliances. Miguel R. Camus