Fruitas Holdings Inc., a food and beverage kiosk operator, said Tuesday net income increased 41 percent in the first quarter from a year ago despite the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Fruitas said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Tuesday net income in the first three months reached P14.6 million, up from P10.3 million recorded in the same period last year.
It said while sales grew 16 percent in the first two months, the declaration of enhanced community quarantine in the second half of March caused first-quarter revenues to decline by 16 percent to P374.1 million from P422.9 million a year earlier.
“We experienced strong sales growth in the first quarter of 2020, although it was cut short by the quarantine. However, the cost containment measures we had earlier implemented, as well as our flexible cost structure, allowed us to cut costs to deliver higher net income in the first quarter of 2020 compared to 2019,” said Fruitas president and chief executive Lester Yu. Jenniffer B. Austria