RFM made sweet P1.6-B profit in 2017

Concepcion family-led RFM Corp. grew its net profit last year by 6 percent to P1.06 billion, riding on the strong consumer food businesses.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, RFM said sales revenues last year amounted to P12.7 billion, flat from the reported year-ago level.

RFM president and chief executive Jose Concepcion III said based on latest unaudited financials, the company’s consumer branded businesses—such as Selecta ice cream and Fiesta pasta—along with institutional businesses, led the top line growth.

Revenues from its ice cream business under the brand Selecta grew by 13 percent. This ice cream joint venture with Unilever has just embarked on a P1-billion capital expenditure (capex) expansion to meet growth requirements in the medium term.

Concepcion said the firm recently declared a P300-million cash dividend that is “the first tranche of the 50-percent dividend payout of our 2017 P1.06-billion net income, as well as another P300-million budget for our continuing share buyback program.”

The P1-billion capex of the ice cream business would be funded by the joint venture while the ongoing flour mill capex upgrade of P240-million has been fully covered by internally generated cash.

“RFM sees continued consumer consumption growth in the coming years and we are investing already to be able to take full advantage of that growth,” Concepcion said.

“For 2018, we see sustained growth in our ice cream and faster growth in the pasta business. We also plan to push our RTD (ready-to-drink) milk lines for faster growth this year,” Concepcion said.