Wilcon Depot Inc. on Monday said it has set aside a capital expenditure (capex) budget of P3.2 billion for this year, which it will use for the expansion of its existing stores and the construction of new branches.
Lorraine Belo-Cincochan, the company’s president and CEO, said Wilcon will pursue its plan of having 100 stores by 2025 despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic.
The company’s capex this year is 45 percent higher than the previous year’s P2.2 billion and 18 percent higher than the P2.7 billion in 2019.
Cincochan said the company has already spent some P595 million on new branches in the first quarter. This brought the company’s total number of stores to 66 from 63 as of end-2020.
The rest of the 2021 capex will be used for the expansion of existing stores and warehouses and its information technology systems as it augments its operations through online sales.
The company said it plans to have 72 stores by the end of the year. Wilcon is targeting to open stores in Cordova in Isabela; Pila, Laguna; Malaybalay, Bukidnon; Bohol; and Tagum, Davao. For the first quarter, the company’s net income jumped 84 percent to P604 million from net sales of P6.7 billion, which grew by 19 percent year-on-year.
In 2020, all of the company’s stores in Luzon were closed for two months due to the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine from mid-March to May 15, 2020.
The net income in the January-to-March period was on a par with the 2019 figure. Company officials said they have set their sights on a quarterly net income of P600 million.
“We will work hard on our top line to achieve the P600-million net income level per quarter,” Cincochan said.