RETAILER Philippine Seven Corp. (PSC), the local licensee of 7-Eleven convenience stores, grew its net profit in the first quarter by 61.6 percent year-on-year to P182.4 million as election spending boosted sales.
“The improved financial performance was within expectation as the company’s profitability is
historically favorable during election years,” PSC reported to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.
Retail sales of all stores gained by 33.5 percent to P7.3 billion compared with same period last year.
The increase in sales was attributed to the higher number of operating stores, which expanded by
23.4 percent or by 314 stores for the period. In addition, same-store sales went up by high-single digit during the period.
Operating margin as a percent of revenue from merchandise sales improved to 4.1 percent from 3.7 percent, owing to higher sales volume during the first three months of the year.
PSC opened 55 new stores and closed two during the quarter, ending the period with 1,655 stores. There are now 1,421 stores in Luzon, 189 in Visayas and 45 in Mindanao.
“The company is set to attain another milestone this year in terms of total number of stores and
profitability. While competition is likely to be more intense, PSC is the most capable to strengthen
its position in the convenience store sector. It aims to capitalize on its first-mover advantage and
intends to benefit from the capacity-building expenditures over the last three years,” the company said.
For this year, PSC has set aside P3.5 billion in capital expenditures to support its store expansion strategy. Bulk of the budget is meant for new store opening, store renovation and equipment acquisition.