Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. nets P965 million in 2018

MANILA, Philippines — Metro Retail Stores Group Inc. (MRSGI), the Cebu-based retailer, posted a net profit of P965.4 million last year, down by 1.2 percent.

Last year’s results still showed a strong performance despite a fire that damaged a department store and supermarket in Ayala Center Cebu in January 2018.

The rest of the stores remained positive and continued to exceed prior year’s performance on the back of steady same-store sales growth of 5.1 percent and 110 basis points improvement in same-store gross profit margins versus prior year, MRSGI said in a statement.

 As a result, total sales declined 5.6 percent to P33.05 billion, but gross profit margins soared  by 60 basis points  due to improvements in inventory and margin productivity, price competitiveness and merchandise assortment.

Frank S. Gaisano, MRSGI chairman and chief executive officer said: “Our healthy bottom line figures demonstrate the efficacy of our business strategies that have aided us in being resilient over internal and external tremors.”