Wilcon Depot Inc., the country’s leading home improvement and finishing construction supplies retailer said over the weekend third-quarter sales jumped 8 percent to P6.75 billion from a year ago.
“We are very encouraged by the ramp up of our sales in the third quarter, and we are hopeful that the growth trajectory will continue in the fourth,” Wilcon chief executive Lorraine Belo-Cincochan said.
Third-quarter net income slightly fell 3 percent to P533 million from P549 million in the same period last year.
Wilcon said that after the government eased quarantine restrictions in Metro Manila in May, there was an immediate uptick in foot traffic and sales that persisted until July.
Sales, however, were disrupted again in August when Metro Manila and nearby provinces were placed again under stricter quarantine measures for two weeks. After transitioning back to looser quarantine measures, sales gradually picked up in September, resulting in a 2.9-percent growth in comparable sales.
The company said the SSSG for depot format, which accounted for 97.3 percent of total sales, grew by 1.5 percent in the third quarter.
It said that net income in the first three quarters declined by 42.6 percent to P886 million as net sales decreased by 12.5 percent to P18.03 billion.
Wilcon opened a new store in September to boost its store network to 61. The company is slated to open three more stores before the end of the year and nine branches next year.
“The management believes that the market will continue to improve and the expansion plan which is focused on expanding Wilcon’s reach outside of its base, Metro Manila, is still going in the right direction and still on track,” Belo-Cincochan said.
“Private construction is gradually picking up in Metro Manila and more so in the provinces. In the third quarter, only Metro Manila stores registered negative growth while the rest of the branches already turned in positive same store sales growth,” she said.