Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 12) — Food and chemical products manufacturer D&L Industries expects to continue seeing solid recovery figures after it finished the first semester with a 74% increase in profit, brushing off worries on major impacts of the reimposed hard lockdown, its top official said.
The listed company saw its earnings jump to ₱1.39 billion as all its segments recovered in the January-June period.
Sales generated in the first six months also climbed 37% to ₱13.905 billion against the ₱10.173 billion a year ago.
Although the government placed the capital and several provinces under the strictest quarantine status, D&L president and chief executive officer Alvin Lao said it was “not a major factor to pull us down, as observed in Q2 (second quarter).”
Despite the enhanced community quarantine implemented in the Greater Manila area in the second quarter, the impact of the lockdown on D&L’s operations was “not significant,” Lao said in a media briefing on Wednesday.
“We’re on track to at least meet pre-pandemic [2019] net income, if not exceed it,” Lao said, adding that the group expects to reach the 2018 profit level by next year.
Aside from the current vaccine rollout driving D&L’s optimism, Lao said consumers have already adapted to doing business online.
“That’s one blessing I’m seeing from COVID,” he said.
“Moreover, we see emerging positive catalysts in the horizon such as the onset of the Christmas season, an additional spending boost coming from the 2022 election campaigns, and progress on the country’s vaccination efforts that can provide upside surprises,” Lao was quoted as saying in a disclosure.
