Puregold Price Club Inc., the grocery chain led by businessman Lucio Co, said its income reached P3.99 billion in the first semester, 17 percent higher than last year’s P3.4 billion.
Net sales, however, fell 7 percent to P76.18 billion for the period from last year’s P81.96 billion, due mainly to the high base effects created by the public’s panic buying at the onset of the pandemic last year.
Some 72 percent of revenues came from the Puregold stores network while 28 percent was contributed by S&R Membership warehouse clubs and S&R New York Style Pizza stores.
Consolidated income from operations grew by 7.5 percent to P6.14 billion, from the P5.71 billion a year ago due to strategic costs controls.
“Puregold’s innovative digitization approach through our Puregold Mobile app, Puregold Channel and our e-commerce website will enable us to connect seamlessly with our consumers during this Covid-19 pandemic and at the same time strengthens customer loyalty,” Vincent Co, the company’s president, said.
As of end-June, Puregold opened 15 new organic stores out of the planned 30 to 40 new stores.
S&R also plans to open two new warehouse clubs in the second semester. The group currently has a total of 484 stores nationwide. These include 418 Puregold stores, 20 S&R membership shopping warehouse and 46 S&R New York Style stores.
Last year, the company reported that its income rose by 19 percent 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 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 of 2.4 percent for the year while S&R registered an SSSG of 8.7 percent during the same period.