Wilcon Depot Inc., a leading home improvement and construction material supplier, plans to open 100 stores over the next few years.
Wilcon president and chief executive Lorraine Belo-Cincochan said in a recent interview the company was launching new stores in line with the target to open 100 outlets.
“We are thinking that we could have 100 stores. But we have yet to plot as what year we will be able to achieve that,” Belo-Cincochan said.
Wilcon is expected to open eight stores this year and five to six stores annually after that.
Belo-Cincochan said to achieve the target of 100 stores, the group began identifying areas suitable for expansion and next growth.
She said for this year, the company was aiming to hit a double-digit growth in revenues and net income.
“We are still pushing for that”•double-digit growth in net income and revenues. We are bullish this year because we want to open eight stores this year,” Belo-Cincochan said.
The company also expects to maintain its same-store sales growth of 5 percent.
Wilcon was listed with the Philippine Stock Exchange in 2017. It unveiled a target in that year to have 65 stores by 2021.
The company said it was now ahead of the target and expected to hit 65 stores between 2019 to 2020. The company ended 2018 with 51 stores after opening 11 new outlets. It opened its newest store in Palawan in January.
Wilcon recorded a net income of P1.39 billion in the first three quarters of 2018, up 24.3 percent from a year ago, driven by the opening and ramp-up of new stores and strong comparable sales growth.
Net sales reached P15.359 billion in the nine-month period, up 17.9 percent from a year earlier.
The share price of Wilcon recently hit a 52-week high of P15 amid the favorable outlook. The price went up 12.16 percent since the start of the year to P14.20 as of Friday.
