RFM income surges 78% to P282 million

MANILA, Philippines - Concepcion-owned food and beverage conglomerate RFM Corp. continues to defy the economic downturn, registering a 78-percent growth in net earnings for the first nine months of the year.

In a disclosure to securities regulators, RFM said its net profit from January to September this year reached P282 million, surpassing the P245 million full year net income posted in 2008. Net sales rose seven percent to P5.78 billion.

Jose Concepcion III, president and chief executive officer of RFM, credited the company’s strong performance to better operations and lower costs, particularly with the transfer to more modern and efficient production facilities for its pasta, beverage and meat products.

He said the growth was also due to softening prices of major raw materials this year as against the previous year’s level.

He added sales are expected to continue their upward momentum ahead of market growth through the launch of better value-for-money food and beverage alternatives to the consuming public.

Concepcion pointed out that the group’s pasta brand, White King Fiesta spaghetti, “continues to be the market leader nationwide based on recent retail audits, because of its strong value proposition to Filipino consumers.”

He said the Fiesta brand is now the company’s newest market leader in the RFM Group, after the Selecta brand which has remained the number one ice cream brand in the country with a 55 percent market share.

The group’s processed meat and milk products under Swift and Selecta, respectively, have likewise registered high double-digit sales growth this year with stronger consumer pull, new product introductions and deeper distribution penetration.

Concepcion expressed optimism in the growth performance of RFM’s new health beverage line, led by such trail-blazing products as Vitwater, or water with vitamins and benefits; Alo Youth, another first-mover local brand in the aloe vera-filled drink category; and the Sunkist Healthy Heart orange juice, with plant sterols that reduce cholesterol levels in the body.