Food manufacturer Universal Robina Corp. said over the weekend net income grew 40.4 percent in the first three quarters to P10.54 billion from a year ago, led by other income from gain on sale of fixed assets and turnaround of net foreign exchange losses.
URC said in a disclosure to the stock exchange nine-month revenues were nearly unchanged at P85.8 billion from P85.1 billion a year earlier, on lower sales from domestic business.
Cost of sales, consisting of raw and packaging materials, direct labor and manufacturing costs, increased at a faster rate of 2.6 percent in the first nine months to P60.74 billion on higher input costs.
Sales of branded consumer food group declined 2.5 percent to P60.36 billion reflecting the high base effect from pantry stock-up in 2020 at the start of the pandemic.
International sales rose 5 percent to P16.13 billion in the first nine months. In US dollar terms, sales increased by 6.7 percent, driven by Indo-China and Indonesia despite the COVID challenges.
Sales in Vietnam grew by 17.7 percent, helped by resurgence in beverage sales while sales in Thailand recovered with an 8.2-percent growth coming from strong domestic performance.
Wholly owned subsidiary URC Oceania signed an agreement in July to sell its remaining 60-percent stake in Oceania business to joint venture partner Intersnack for an undisclosed amount.
URC Oceania’s consolidated businesses in Australia and New Zealand include Snack Brands Australia, one of Australia’s leading salty snack manufacturers with a wide portfolio of strong local brands and Griffin‘s Foods, New Zealand’s largest biscuit manufacturer.
The company also registered a net foreign exchange gain of P16 million in nine months from P708-million loss in the same period last year.
Net income in the third quarter went up 24.8 percent to P2.46 billion from P1.97 billion a year ago as revenues inched up by 2.5 percent to P27.9 billion from P27.2 billion.