Grocery chain operators Puregold Price Club Inc. and MerryMart Consumer Corp. booked higher earnings in the first half of the year, benefiting from higher consumer spending and panic buying during the lockdown period.
Puregold, owned by retail tycoon Lucio Co, said in a disclosure to the stock exchange Friday it recorded a consolidated net income of P3.4 billion in the first half of 2020, up 20 percent from P2.83 billion year-on-year. First-half consolidated revenues also rose 15 percent to P81.96 billion.
Puregold said the strong first half performance was driven by the organic expansion of the group’s grocery retail outlets on the back of sustained strong consumer demand.
Same store sales growth (SSSG) climbed 9.2 percent in the first half of 2020 while S&R registered an SSSG of 12 percent during the same period.
“Our SSSG in this period is driven by higher consumer spending and pantry loading prior to the COVID Quarantine as well as the continued store operations even during enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) period,” Puregold said.
The Puregold Group had 444 stores nationwide as of end June 2020.. These include 385 Puregold stores, 20 S&R membership shopping warehouse, and 39 S&R New York Style QSR with a total net selling area of around 580,000 square meters.
Meanwhile, MerryMart of businessman Edgar Sia II said net income in the first six months of the year reached P13.67 million, up 24 percent from P11.03 million in the same period last year.
First-half consolidated revenues climbed 35.2 percent to P1.64 billion from P1.21 billion on year.
MerryMart has nine stores while 17 more are scheduled for opening by the end of 2020.
“The MerryMart team continues to decipher and recalibrate its expansion plans as we move forward towards the ‘new normal’ that consumers are adjusting to. The team locates its branches in strategic locations factoring the post-pandemic new normal scenario,” said chairman Sia.
The company also plans to launch an online platform this year. It is developing MerryMart Drive Thru store, which will soon be deployed in several major thoroughfares.