Fruitas back to profitability with economic reopening

FRUITAS Lester Yu

MANILA  -Food kiosk king Lester Yu’s Fruitas Holdings Inc. ended 2022 with a turnaround profit after a strong revenue growth during the postlockdown period.

Net income last year jumped to P82 million, reversing a loss of P16 million in 2021, a stock exchange filing on Tuesday showed. Total revenues were also up 63 percent to P1.8 billion in 2022.

“The exceptional performance of the entire Fruitas Holdings Group in 2022 inspires to do even better in the coming years,” said Yu, the company’s president and CEO.

“Despite the challenging environment, we were able to improve margins and generate returns for our shareholders,” he added.

Fruitas operates over 25 food kiosk brands, including Fruitas Fresh from Babot’s Farm, Buko Loco, Buko ni Fruitas, De Original Jamaican Pattie and Johnn Lemon.

Better volumes, margins

The gains were driven by “strong” same-store sale growth as it streamlined its store count to 770 last year from over 1,000 at the end of 2019.

In 2022, the company achieved 92.5 percent of its prepandemic revenues, which had yet to include contributions from the recently-acquired Ling Nam restaurant chain.

Margins on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization also increased to 16 percent last year from 11.9 percent in 2021 despite inflationary pressures.

Meanwhile, Fruitas recognized P144 million in incremental equity reserves following the initial public offering of Balai ni Fruitas last year. This refers to the excess value over cost of investments in Balai.

“We were able to unlock the value of Balai ni Fruitas via listing,” Yu said.

“We expect all Fruitas brands to perform better this year and we will strongly invest in our recent acquisitions, Balai Pandesal and Ling Nam, to achieve our growth targets,” he added.