URC still focused on growth

GOKONGWEI-LED Universal Robina Corp. (URC) highlighted that they are focusing on both revenue and profit growth, its executive said.

During the company’s annual meeting on Thursday, URC President and Chief Executive Officer Irwin Lee said the company is “growth-oriented” and would continue focusing on growth.

“In our base business, adding new adjacencies and innovating to help the categories return back to growth but even though we are growth-minded, we are not compromising on our profit margin improvements,” Lee said.

“We believe that we can do both, that we can achieve growth while delivering on supply chain transformations, organizational efficiencies that will allow us to build margins and profitability as we also build our growth trajectory into the future,” he continued.

Lee also said they are planning for the worst but are hopeful for recovery towards the end of the year.

He said recovery is happening at varying phases in the different countries they operate in as some of their international operations have already rebounded in the first quarter.

URC’s total net sales in January to March inched up by 3 percent to P34.6 billion as its improved international business units and commodity division offset the decline in domestic branded consumer foods.

Meanwhile, its net income for the period improved by 51 percent year-on-year to P3.2 billion.

“I think we’ll focus on the things we can control, on things that are within our influence and that’s working well with our customers, innovating into the consumer trend that we are seeing and closely providing the communities where we live and operate everything they need to survive this pandemic,” Lee added.

Shares of URC gained P2 or 1.52 percent to close at P134 apiece on Wednesday.