Metro Retail Group nets P454M in first 9 months

Cebu-based retailer Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. (MRSGI) maintains solid bottom line figures as it registered positive performance in the first nine months of 2018 with a net profit of P454 million.

Nine-month earnings dipped by 17.3% percent versus prior year mainly due to the fire that damaged a department store and supermarket in Ayala Center Cebu earlier this year nonetheless, the rest of the stores remain positive and have exceeded the prior year’s performance on the back of strong same-store sales growth and margins enhancement.

For the first nine months, the company achieved same-store sales growth of 3.8 percent and 123 basis points improvement in margins versus prior year.

The company posted P110.5 million in profit for third quarter 2018, registering same stores sales growth of 9.3 percent, the highest in the past 10 quarters, and 30 basis points improvement in margins for the same period last year.

“Our positive performance in the first nine months and for the third quarter highlights the efficacy of our business strategies that is defined by inventory and margin productivity, price competitiveness and merchandise assortment,” said MRSGI Chairman and CEO Frank S. Gaisano.

The company continues to increase its presence and invest in emerging business hubs in Luzon and Visayas with the recent groundbreaking of Super Metro Hypermarket Baybay in Leyte and the opening of Metro Department Store and Supermarket at Ayala Malls Feliz in Pasig City and in Bacolod.

MRSGI now operates 51 stores in Central, Western and Eastern Visayas as well as in Central Luzon, Metro Manila and South Luzon, with three store formats comprising a department store, a supermarket and a hypermarket.

Now on its 36th year of operations, MRSGI is on track in attaining the goal of doubling its 2015 gross floor area by 2020.