URC profit jumps 66.5%

MANILA, Philippines - Universal Robina Corp., the food manufacturing arm of tycoon John Gokongwei’s flagship firm JG Summit Holdings Inc., reported a 66.5-percent jump in profit for its fiscal year ending September this year, mainly driven by the robust performance of its domestic branded consumer food group (BCFG).

URC posted net earnings of P7.72 billion during the period October 2011 to September 2012.  Without one-time and marked-to-market gains from its bond investments, core earnings expanded by 20 percent to P8.38 billion.

Revenues went up six percent to P71.2 billion while operating income improved by 13.4 percent to P7.81 billion due to lower input costs as a result of falling commodity prices.

The company’s domestic BCFG posted strong results with net income rising 26.2 percent to P3.91 billion and revenues increasing by 16.2 percent to P34.35 billion.  The strong growth was attributed to the stellar performance of its beverage business, particularly its coffee products which jumped by 56 percent.

As a result, Great Taste White Coffee’s market share increased by 1.2 percentage points to 15.2 percent.

The strong demand for its beverage products made up for the slack of the chocolate business which faced stiff competition.

URC’s international BCFG likewise turned in a good performance with sales rising 5.9 percent to P5.08 billion due to recovery of its operations in Thailand and strong volume growth in Vietnam.

The Thailand business recovered in the last quarter with sales rising 10 percent due to aggressive marketing and the launch of new products particularly in the packaged cakes segment.

In Vietnam, sales of C2 climbed to 3.2 million cases per month while sales of its Dong energy drink hit 300,000 cases per month.

Thailand and Vietnam currently account for over 70 percent of total sales.

Although still accounting for a small portion of the international business, sales in Indonesia saw continued improvement, growing by 15 percent as URC launched new snack products.

Sales in Malaysia and Singapore rose by four percent due to weaker product acceptance.

The commodity food group, meanwhile, reported a 20.5 percent decline to P7.6 billion as sales of sugar fell by 40 percent to P3.4 billion.

The farm segment registered an operating income of P57 million despite the  P202 million net loss incurred in the first half of its fiscal year as a result of depressed prices of pork.

Pork prices went up to P114 per kilogram, significantly higher than the P84/kg average during the first half.