Puregold, Metro Retail earnings rise last year

MANILA, Philippines — Lucio Co-owned Puregold Price Club Inc. (PGOLD) reported a consolidated net income of P5.84 billion in 2017, up 5.7 percent year-on-year.

Consolidated net sales increased 0.6 percent to P124.5 billion last year due to the continued strong consumer demand from its existing store network which includes Puregold, S&R Membership warehouse clubs and S&R New York Style Pizza stores.

Similarly, income from operations rose 6.9 percent to P8.65 billion.

In terms of same store sales growth, Puregold stores registered a growth of 4.4 percent, while S&R stores posted a 6.5 percent increase.

As of the end of 2017, Puregold Group had a total of 372 stores nationwide including 309 Puregold stores, 14 S&R Membership shopping warehouse, and 32 S&R New York Style QSR, nine NE Bodega Supermarkets and eight Budgetlane Supermarkets.

Moving forward, the company expects to open 25 new Puregold stores and two new S&R warehouses in 2018.

Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. (MRSGI) likewise grew its net income by 23.7 percent to P977 million as total sales across all store formats increased to P35 billion.

MRSGI chairman and CEO Frank Gaisano attributed the company’s growth to the continually robust retail landscape and continuous operational enhancement programs.

“We were able to achieve our targets by properly executing our margin improvement, cost rationalization, and sales programs. These were part of our margin enhancement efforts that led to higher net income growth,” Gaisano said.

The company plans to continue to partner with the country’s top developers, focus on faster-growing areas, as well as look into merger and acquisition opportunities to further accelerate sales growth across the company’s retail formats.

For this year, the company plans to open more stores in line with its objective of doubling its 2015 gross floor area by 2020.

With the 52 stores currently in the network plus those in the pipeline, the company has already covered 566,494 square meters GFA or 70.8 percent of its target.