Holcim income plummets by 42%
Cement firm Holcim Philippines Inc. said its income plunged 42 percent last year to P2.06 billion, from the previous P3.58 billion mainly due to the lockdown measures and bad weather in the fourth quarter.
net sales declined by 22 percent to P26.01 billion from the previous P33.48 billion as volume and prices dropped due to the impact of the pandemic.
Lockdowns during march to may and severe weather conditions in the fourth quarter further affected the business. Bad weather hampered the delivery of raw materials and services to production sites and dispatch of products to customers.
“Key to our resilient 2020 performance was our focus on health, cash and cost. We improved efficiency and sustainability of operations. We also introduced new building solutions and enhanced digital tools to better serve the customers. With our committed employees and loyal business partners, these improvements make us ready to help drive a faster recovery and deliver great value to all our stakeholders,” John Stull, the company’s president and CEO, said.
For the fourth quarter alone, the company’s income fell 40 percent to P1.03 billion from the previous P1.71 billion. Sales declined 26 percent to P7.23 billion from the previous P9.8 billion.
the company said it responded to the pandemic by rationalizing costs and managing spend, which yielded a cost improvement of 7 percent from 2019.
Holcim said it kept operations free from Covid-19 in 2020 due to immediate actions in line with government guidelines and Lafargeholcim Group’s best practices. these enabled it to prevent any health-related disruptions and to provide reliable supply to customers after the lockdowns were eased nationwide.
the company earlier announced that it has appointed Horia Adrian as the new president and CEO of the company.
Adrian is the former CEO of Romania and market Head emerging europe. He joined Lafargeholcim in 2000 and has held various management roles, including CEO roles for Russia, eastern europe and CIS and middle east. He also managed the Lafargeholcim Group’s Business transformation.