Villar-led one-stop-shop home store AllHome Corp. grew its first quarter net profit by 30 percent year-on-year to P270.2 million, driven by sales from new stores that opened late last year, when it raised fresh funds from a stock market debut.
Total revenues for the first quarter likewise increased by 41 percent year-on-year to P3.4 billion, AllHome disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Thursday.
“AllHome’s growth in the first quarter of 2020 was mainly driven by the additional contribution from the new store openings from the last quarter of 2019,” said AllHome chair Manuel Villar, Jr. said in a press statement.
“We are very pleased with our performance, which remained strong despite the occurrence of unforeseeable circumstances such as the eruption of Taal volcano and the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the (coronavirus) COVID 19 pandemic,” he added.
The government subjected Metro Manila, and later on the whole of Luzon, to strict quarantine protocols under the ECQ in mid-March. Higher sales prior to the ECQ alongside delivery services, however, shored up AllHome earnings.
AllHome vice chair Camille Villar said: “The start of the year has been quite challenging. However, AllHome plans to capitalize on the new normal mindset, which is to stay at home.”
“More households are taking the opportunity to recreate their personal spaces by prioritizing comfort, refurbishing and renovating their homes since they spent most of their time during the ECQ inside the house. We also added measures to enhance the safety of our transactions such as touch-free payments and various delivery options, including curbside pickups, the use of personal shopping services and beefing up our e-commerce platforms,” she added.
On the current level of safety of AllHome stores, she noted that the group was paying close attention to safety, especially during these challenging times. AllHome has likewise implemented several measures to ensure safety of company personnel, she added.
“To help mitigate the risk of COVID-19, we have included in our store protocols the early closure of stores to allow for more stringent sanitation and the replenishment of essential products, the practice of social distancing, as well as the placing of limits on customer traffic at any one time inside all stores,” she said.
On AllHome’s store openings this year, company president Benjamarie Therese Serrano said in light of the recent situation, the group was “constantly evaluating” its expansion program.
“We grew our store network from 23 in 2018 to 45 by the end of 2019, a testament to the Villar group’s proven capability to fast-track the construction and opening of stores. We still view 2020 with optimism as the lockdown condition eases out. I would like to highlight that if the situation improves, we have the capability to fast track construction and fit out and subsequently, open new stores as we see fit,” she said.
AllHome, which listed on the stock market last October 10, ended the first quarter with P19.9 billion in assets, increasing from P19.7 billion at yearend.