FOOD and beverage firm RFM Corp. grew its first quarter net profit by 20 percent year-on-year to P216 million, led by the double-digit expansion in its consumer food segment particularly the ice cream and pasta businesses.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, RFM reported that sales revenues in the first three months rose by 2 percent year-on-year to P2.6 billion.
RFM president and chief executive officer Jose Concepcion III said sales continued to post a growth of 16 percent for its consumer group which included ice cream and pasta units.
The ice cream joint venture with Unilever, Selecta ice cream, accelerated growth which RFM attributed to “new product innovations, excellent value propositions, and effective marketing campaigns.” RFM added that the ice cream business expanded with its wider distribution reach and increased consumption frequency.
“Moreover, the continued growth in the pasta group further improved its economies of scale, as warehousing and logistics operations get rationalized. These factors coupled with better input costs significantly improved the group’s profitability”, Concepcion said.
With stronger consumption spending seen this year with more robust purchasing power and being an election year, and the outlook on more favorable commodity input costs, this year promises to be a better year, Concepcion added.