Pepsi-cola unit in PH posts 10% growth in Q2 profit

BEVERAGE-maker Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines Inc. grew its second quarter net profit by 10 percent year-on-year to P387.7 million on the back of record-high sales volume.

This brought the company’s six-month net profit to P657.95 million, 13.9 percent higher than the year-ago level, according to PCPPI’s regulatory filing.

The company also reported record sales volume in both carbonated and non-carbonated drinks segments. Total volume increased by 25 percent for the quarter and 22 percent for the six-month period from year-ago levels.

“By sustaining our drive on product availability and affordability across the country, it allowed us to achieve remarkable volume growth for the quarter -- the sixth consecutive quarter of strong, double-digit growth for the company”, PCPPI president Partho Chakrabarti said in a statement.

Propelled by the double-digit growth in volume, the company registered P7.4 billion in revenues for the quarter and P13.4 billion for the six-month period, higher by 22 percent and 18 percent over their respective comparative levels last year.

The company said its flagship brand, Pepsi, led the growth driven by the carbonated soft drinks segment.

Cost of sales—consisting mainly of raw and packaging materials, direct labor and manufacturing overhead costs—increased by 21 per- cent for the quarter and 17 percent year-onyear for the six-month period, it added.

However, as a percentage of net sales, the level remained the same as last year’s, with costs of sugar and other materials remaining stable.

As a result, gross profit reached P1.8 billion for the quarter (+21 percent year-on-year) and P3.2 billion (+18 percent) for the six-month period.

Operating expenses for the quarter and for the six-month period remained manageable as the company sustained efforts to control costs.

“Wemanaged to increase income from operations by 15 percent for the quarter and 16 percent for the six-month period compared to last year. This was achieved despite increased spending in marketing and continued investments in manufacturing and sales infrastructure”, said Jika Dalupan, PCPPI vice-president for corporate affairs and communications.

“The company is optimistic in preserving growth and profitability through continued efforts to drive top-line growth, sustain cost management, implement capital expenditures, and increase marketing efforts,” Dalupan said.

PCPPI is the exclusive bottler of PepsiCo beverages in the Philippines. Lotte Chilsung, one of the biggest beverage companies in South Korea, is the lead shareholder of PCPPI as an independently-listed company. It is co-managing the local operations with PepsiCo.