Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 5)— Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. saw profits slip in the third quarter, even as it posted a double-digit increase in net sales.
In a disclosure, the Gokongwei-led firm said it booked a ₱1.25-billion net income, about a tenth lower than the ₱1.39 billion it made a year during July-September 2018.
Robinsons Retail owns the Robinsons Department Store chain, Handyman Do it Best hardware, home furnishing store True Value, convenience store Ministop, and Costa Coffee brands in the Philippines. Its local brands include Savers Appliances and drugstores South Star Drug and The Generics Pharmacy.
The company attributed the decline to the change in accounting standards called the Philippine Financial Reporting Standard (PFRS) 16 that altered its reporting of its financial statement. This, even as it booked a 24.2 percent surge in net sales, which reached ₱38.95 billion during the quarter. However, other operating expenses ate into the revenues.
For the first nine months, the Robinsons unit booked a ₱3.36-billion net income, down 22.5 percent from the same period last year. Total sales, however, jumped by a fourth to reach ₱116.16 billion.
Gross profits settled at ₱26.69 billion, while operating income ended at ₱5.33 billion, the company told the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Robinsons Retail said the higher sales came as new stores opened in its properties over the past year as well as the addition of Rustan Supercenters, which boosted the share of the supermarket segment to 55 percent of the entire business.
The Gokongweis bought the Rustan’s chain of supermarkets — which include Marketplace by Rustan’s Shopwise, and Wellcome — for ₱18 billion in a deal signed in 2018.
It added that the profits were coming from a high base, as it reported the “positive impact” of the tax reform law that armed Filipinos with higher disposable incomes in 2018. Bulk sales ahead of and for relief operations for victims of Typhoon Ompong also raised sales last year.
Robinsons Retail currently runs 1,918 stores nationwide, which includes 258 supermarkets, 50 department stores, 215 do-it-yourself stores, and 509 convenience stores. Some 517 drugstores and 369 specialty stores have also been generating profits for the group, which also owns the brands Daiso Japan and Toys”R”Us.
Shares at Robinsons Retail closed at ₱75.70 apiece on Tuesday, down 0.53 percent from the previous day.
