Strong Q4 performance lifts Puregold income in 2020

Puregold Price Club Inc., the grocery chain led by businessman lucio Co, said its income rose 19 percent in 2020 to P8.05 billion from the previous year’s P6.77 billion, mainly as a result of its strong fourth quarter performance.

Net sales grew 9 percent to P168.63 billion from the previous P154.49 billion. About 73 percent of the revenues came from the Puregold stores network while 27 percent was

contributed by S&R Membership warehouse clubs and S&R New York Style Pizza stores.

The company’s performance was just slightly up for the three quarters of 2020 compared with 2019 figures, but the company saw its income double in the fourth quarter to P4.65 billion from the previous year’s P2.21 billion. Sales skyrocketed as the public went out less frequently but shopped with higher ticket sales for most of 2020, broker Regina Capital and Development Corp. said.

Sales for the last quarter of 2020 almost doubled to P86.66 billion, from the previous year’s 44.5 billion.

“Our company has achieved a record breaking year in 2020 despite lot of challenges due to Covid-19 pandemic. We cannot achieve this without the support and commitment of our suppliers and employees on providing the best product and service to our customers. We are committed to drive sustainable growth in 2021 thru continued store expansions and innovations in grocery retailing.” Co, the company’s chairman, said.

The company said its consolidated income from operations grew 17 percent to P13.4 billion in 2020, from P11.4 billion during the same period in 2019.

Puregold stores registered same store sales growth (SSSG) of 2.4 percent for the year while S&R registered an SSSG of 8.7 percent during the same period.

As of end-december 2020, Puregold group has a total of 469 stores nationwide. These include 403 Puregold stores, 20 S and R membership shopping warehouse and 46 S and R New York Style quick serve restaurants.