Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc., the retail holding company of the Gokongwei family, reported a 2.4-percent increase in first-quarter net income to P945 million from a year ago on reduced operating expenses to cope with the impact of the pandemic.
RRHI said in a disclosure to the stock exchange first-quarter net sales declined by 11 percent to P35.6 billion from P40 billion in the same period last year.
Same-store sales growth was down to -16.1 percent, with the supermarket and drugstore segments coming off from high bases induced by panic buying for essential goods such as food and medicines in the same period last year.
SSSG of these essential formats was at record high at 42.1 percent and 34.7 percent, respectively, in March 2020.
Sales performance of discretionary formats in the first quarter of the year was also weighed down by three months of varying levels of lockdowns, versus only 15 days of lockdowns in 2020.