Robinsons Retail notches profit
In 2017
Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. (RRHI) reported that modest 3.1 percent hike in attributable net income to R5.0 billion last year from R4.8 billion in 2016 due to lower foreign exchange gains and higher taxable income on the back of strong growth in operating profit.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said its unaudited core net earnings increased by 13.7 percent to R4.7 billion from R4.1 billion on the back of the 14.8 percent increase in operating income to R6.3 billion from R5.5 billion in 2016.
RRHI’s core profit is net income excluding interest from bonds, equitized net earnings from its 40 percent stake in Robinsons Bank and unrealized foreign exchange gains or losses.
“The improvement (in core profit) was driven by stronger sales, resilient same store sales growth (SSSG) despite coming from a high base in 2016 boosted by election spending and improvement in gross margins,” RRHI said.
Consolidated net sales expanded by 9.4 percent in 2017 to R115.2 billion from R105.3 billion in the previous year, brought about by the resilient SSSG of 2.7 percent, the sales contribution from the 140 new stores opened during the twelve months of 2017 and the full year consolidation of The Generics Pharmacy (TGP), De Oro Pacific Home Plus and Chic Centre.
At end of 2017, the supermarket segment recorded SSSG of 2.5 percent, DIY (Do-it-Yourself) at 6.4 percent, convenience stores at 2.9 percent, drugstores at 1.6 percent and specialty stores at 7.8 percent.
Blended gross profit improved by 11.7 percent to R25.7 billion in 2017 from R23.0 billion in 2016, with gross margins expanding by 40 basis points to 22.3 percent, as a result of increasing scale and improvement in category mix.
The supermarket segment continued to be the group’s largest segment, accounting for 45.4 percent of consolidated net sales.
Robinsons Retail ended the year with a total of 1,718 stores comprising of 154 supermarkets, 49 department stores, 193 do-it-yourself stores, 496 convenience stores, 484 drugstores and 342 specialty stores.
This is on top of the 2,015 franchised stores of the Generics Pharmacy (TGP). The group’s gross floor area, excluding TGP, expanded by 10.0 percent year-on-year to 1.15 million square meters. (JAL)