Robinsons Retail income up 38.7% as sales improved

Gokongwei-led retailer Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc. (RRHI) reported a 38.7-percent year-on-year growth in third quarter net income to P1.04 billion as sales improved alongside the recovery of the domestic economy despite the reimposition of tough lockdown protocols.

This brought RRHI’s nine-month net profit to P2.71 billion, rising by 13.3 percent year-on-year.

This accounted for 68 percent of about P4 billion in earnings that market consensus expects the multiformat retailer to deliver for the full year.

The third quarter profit also marked a sequential improvement from the P723.9-million bottom line recorded in the second quarter.

“The continued improvement in our third quarter performance is indicative of the pivot as the Philippine economy recovers. With more people getting vaccinated resulting in a drop in COVID-19 cases, quarantine/mobility restrictions are now relaxed. This further supports our view that we can sustain the growth momentum of the business into the succeeding quarters,” RRHI president and CEO Robina Gokongwei-Pe said in a press statement.

Third quarter net sales rose by 8.3 percent year-on-year to P37.5 billion despite the two-week enhanced community quarantine in August in the National Capital Region. This growth was predominantly driven by the robust same store sales growth (SSSG) of the drugstore segment and positive SSSG of the department store, convenience store and the appliance business. SSSG removes the impact of network changes, such as store openings, to allow for better comparison.

Due to slower sales seen in the first half, however, net sales for the nine-month period ended flat at about P109 billion compared to the year-ago level.

Meanwhile, RRHI said e-commerce transactions aggressively grew to contribute P1.8 billion in sales for the third quarter alone. This accounted for 3.5 times comparable e-commerce sales in the same period last year and approximated 4.8 percent of RRHI’s total sales for the quarter.

RRHI’s gross profit increased by 7.8 percent year-on-year to P8.6 billion for the third quarter, while operating income was up by 2.2 percent to P1.5 billion.

But the company acknowledged that year-to-date results still reflected disruptions from the pandemic, resulting in a 10.4-percent year-on-year dip in operating income to P3.82 billion.

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla