7-ELEVEN PULLS IN P648.3M PROFIT

The country’s leading convenience store operator Philippine Seven Corp. (PSC) chalked up P648.3 million in net profit at end September, up by 0.8 percent year-on-year, as samestore sales rebounded in the third quarter.

PSC, the local licensee of the 7Eleven convenience store chain, grew net income by 18 percent year-on-year to P201.9 million in the third quarter alone.

Same store sales grew by 4.1 percent year-on-year during the third quarter, improving from the decline of 4.4 percent in the first quarter and the modest growth of 1.2 percent in the second quarter. This brought yearto-date same-store sales growth to 0.1 percent, despite coming from a high base in 2016, during which consumer spending got an extraordinary boost from the presidential election campaign.

System-wide retail sales amounted to P27.2 billion, up by 18.1 percent.

Store count by end-September reached 2,172, up by 332 or 18 percent from the same period last year.