Milk, pasta sales drive RFM revenues during pandemic

Isted food and beverage company RFM Corp. on Monday said it had a better 2020 despite the lockdowns that ravaged the economy, as its main consumer products did well last year.

L“While the 2020 audited financials are still not available, anecdotal evidence points to a better performance in 2020 compared to 2019 in revenues and income. On the one hand, we saw our Selecta Milk, Royal and Fiesta pasta as well as the White

King mixes and flour business units take advantage of the pantry loading behavior of the lockdown period,” Jose Ma. A. Concepcion III said in a statement.

“On the other hand, Selecta Ice cream and bread bun revenues were naturally impacted by the pandemicinduced closures of fastfood chains and stores.”

RFM said its consumer brands Selecta milk expanded at 56 percent last year while pasta brands Fiesta and Royal grew 16 percent and 44 percent, respectively from year-ago levels.

White King hotcakes and other bowl mixes also had a 36-percent increase as consumers purchased and cooked more in their homes during the lockdown.

For the year, Concepcion said that RFM continues to watch trends in consumer sentiment and income as well as the ability of the coming vaccines to restore normalcy in the economy and daily lives of the people.

“We have a strong balance sheet in RFM which supports the continuation of our dividend policy and share buyback programs. While RFM continues to look out for any [merger and acquisition] opportunities to boost shareholder value, the organic growth in milk, ice cream, pasta and mixes will be our growth drivers for 2021,” Concepcion said.

RFM also declared a cash dividend of P350 million or P0.10387 per share payable on March 8, with record date as of February 8, 2021.

The dividend declaration is one of the usual two dividend declarations made every year by the company. RFM dividends per share have grown from 14 centavos in 2017 to 16 centavos by 2019 and to 21 centavos in 2020.

At the end 2020 share price of 4.56 per share, the dividend yield is 4.6 percent, it said.