Wilcon profit surges to P643M as branches brave quarantine woes

Leading home improvement and construction finishing retailer Wilcon Depot chalked up P643 million in second-quarter profit, about 27 times better than the meager earnings booked in the same period last year at the height of pandemic-related lockdowns.

This brought Wilcon’s six-month net profit to about P1.25 billion, surging by 254 percent year-on-year, driven by larger sales volume, improved margins and the low base seen in the second quarter of 2020, when net profit shrunk to P24 million amid harsh quarantine restrictions and temporary store closures.

“We’re pleased that we were able to sustain our first quarter results despite a quite difficult April [this year], which was the height of the NCR plus [National Capital Region and surrounding provinces] quarantine,” Lorraine Belo-Cincochan, Wilcon president and chief executive said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday.

All branches remained open despite the reimposition of an enhanced community quarantine, the strictest form of lockdown, in Metro Manila and four other provinces in the latter part of March up to the middle of April this year.

Wilcon generated P6.751 billion in second quarter net sales, up by 95.7 percent year-on-year, driven by higher transactions especially in Luzon branches. Sans the contribution from newly opened stores, second quarter year-on-year comparable sales grew by 79.7 percent.

Two new stores opened during the second quarter, bringing Wilcon’s network to 67 branches nationwide.

First semester net sales amounted to about P13.43 billion, up by 48.5 percent year-on-year, while comparable sales rose by 36.4 percent, on higher volume of transactions particularly in Luzon.

The depots or big store formats accounted for 97.3 percent of total net sales in the first half, growing by 49.6 percent year-on-year, with a comparable sales growth of 37.1 percent.

Six-month gross profit grew by 57.4 percent year-on-year to P4.9 billion for the period, with a gross profit margin rate of 36.6 percent.