Universal Robina Corp., the biggest snack food maker, registered a net income of P5.13 billion in the first six months of 2019, up 6.6 percent from P4.8 billion year-on-year.
URC said Thursday in a disclosure to the stock exchange first-half sales climbed 4.2 percent to P67 billion, driven by the strong growth in the domestic business.
Revenues of the Branded Consumer Food Group, excluding the packaging division, increased four percent to P51.5 billion in the first six months from P49.5 billion on year, boosted by the 9.8-percent hike in domestic sales.
URC said the growth in domestic revenues was led by the double-digit growth in coffee, snacks and joint venture businesses.
International operations, meanwhile, reported a 3.8-percent decrease in net sales to P20.8 billion from P21.07 billion in the first half of 2018 due to the sluggish performance of Thailand, compounded by foreign exchange devaluations in New Zealand and Australia.
“New Zealand is now back to growth of 1.5 percent with better sales coming from sweet biscuits to both local and export markets, and from the newly launched snacking cracker. Australia also improved by 1.6 percent driven by the stronger sales of crackers and private labels,” URC said.
URC said Vietnam was still on track on its path to recovery as sales rose 4.3 percent while those in Thailand remained weaker than expected after revenues declined 7.7 percent.
URC’s operating income (excluding hogs market valuation) increased eight percent to P7.6 billion with margins improving by 41 basis points from last year’s.
“We are pleased that our top strategic priority to pivot our Philippines branded consumer foods division back to strong growth continues to be on track. The route-to-market and product supply chain transformation programs we identified and addressed the past year have started to bear fruit; but we need to continue our focus on perfect execution,” said URC president and chief executive Irwin Lee.
“Our brand building and innovation efforts on our biggest core categories are yielding market share gains. Strength in our core gives us the foundation to expand into adjacencies and build our portfolio across markets,” he added.