MANILA, Philippines — Food and beverage company RFM Corp. said its unaudited net income for 2022 reached P1.06 billion, slightly lower than the P1.3 billion recorded in 2021.
This was a result of higher input costs, such as wheat, milk and sugar which RFM absorbed partly, as well as the bigger charge of electricity by RFM’s power supplier, the company said in a regulatory filing.
RFM CEO Jose Ma. A. Concepcion III, however, noted that sales expanded by 15 percent to P19 billion on the back of both volume and price increases in RFM’s ice cream, milk and institutional segments.
“RFM made a conscious effort not to fully pass on the higher costs of commodities and power to the consumers as it wanted to avoid demand contraction that could be inimical to sales in the long run,” Concepcion said.
The company, he said, continues to declare usual dividends on the back of a strong balance sheet with no parent company bank loans even with the recently-approved and internal cash-funded big ticket projects.
Despite the slightly lower net income for 2022, the company’s board of directors approved a cash dividend of P350 million or P0.103871 per share payable on Feb. 14 with a record date as of Jan. 19.
“The P350 million cash dividend is 33 percent of the 2022 unaudited net income and is one of the dividend declarations made every year by the company with a usual total cash payout of 60 percent of net income. At the end-2022 share price of P3.60 per share, the yield of the P350 million dividend is three percent,” the company said in its disclosure.
Moving forward, Concepcion said that RFM sees continued growth in topline and single digit growth in income for 2023.
“RFM’s Royal and Fiesta pasta brands shall continue to strengthen their leadership in the pasta and sauce market while our Selecta Milk hopes to sustain the double digit growth over the years with more innovations. Our ice cream joint venture with Unilever is a big anchor for our topline and bottom line over the years and shall continue to be so in the future.”
He said there are signals that commodity prices are reversing from their steep uptrend which will help recoup margins in 2023.