D&L Industries Inc. said net income in the first quarter of the year rose 15 percent to P633 million from P576 million year-on-year, boosted by the strong performance of its food ingredients business.
First-quarter revenues increased 35 percent to P6.3 billion from P4.6 billion in 2016, driven by strong domestic demand and accelerated export sales.
D&L president Alvin Lao said in a press briefing export sales posted their highest quarterly growth of 73 percent. Exports now account for 24 percent of total sales from 18 percent in the full year of 2016.
Lao expects exports to sustain their growth over the next quarters as food exports are expected to pick up through the company’s partnership with Ventura Foods, following roughly two years of certification and audits.
“Our company continues to see growth across all segments. The strong performance of our export business shows that our commitment to R&D and innovation is being appreciated overseas,” Lao said.
“Looking forward, we will continue to look for more ways to expand internationally to complement the growth in our domestic business,” he said.
Lao said the company was also finalizing plans to expand the current production capacity to sustain growth across all businesses.
“We expect our capacity to reach full capacity in the next two to three years and we need to plan our next expansion,” he said.
D&L currently operates six plants with a total production capacity of 200,000 metric tons.
The oleochemicals group, meanwhile posted a revenue growth of 17 percent year on year to P1.9 billion, largely due to the recovery of higher margin on other specialty chemicals segment.
The biodiesel segment, which contributed 46 percent to group revenues and 16 percent to group gross profits, saw its volume decline by 22 percent.
Specialty plastics revenues increased by five percent to 683 million mainly on the higher average selling price as a result of increased higher raw material prices.
margins and volume, the specialty plastics segment posted 4% earnings growth.
The company expects the segment’s strong growth momentum to continue as aerosol penetration in the Philippines remains low.
The segment should benefit from the increasing consumer demand across all categories due to the rising levels of disposable income in the country.