SSI Group Inc., the country’s largest specialty store retailer, said net income increased 8.1 percent in the second quarter to P150.4 million, as sales grew by double digits despite the decline in-store network.
SSI Group said in a disclosure to the stock exchange net sales in the second quarter rose 13.5 percent to P4.7 billion, on the back of a 13.4-percent increase in same-store sales.
“We saw double-digit same-store sales growth during the second quarter of the year as our brand portfolio and store network continued to benefit from resilient mid and high-end discretionary spending and we expect that margins will continue to firm up as the year progresses” said SSI president Anthony Huang.
The group’s store network included 616 stores covering 124,333 square meters as of end-June, a 7.1-percent year-on-year decline as the company continued to rationalize its operations.
The company opened four stores in the second quarter covering 475 sqm and closed 14 stores covering 2,717 sqm.
The strong second-quarter performance boosted the company’s first-half net income to P283.3 million, up 3.4 percent year-on-year.