7-Eleven books 29% sales hike

MANILA, Philippines - The local licensee of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain reported a robust earnings growth last year as new stores open and sales of stores rose.

In a regulatory filing, Philippine Seven Corp. (Philseven) said its net income rose 46.7 percent to P682.6 million in 2013 from P465.2 million a year ago.

“Retail sales of all stores posted growth of 29 percent to P17.2 billion at the end of 2013 from P13.4 billion during the same period in 2012,” Philseven said.

It also benefited from the 21.7-percent uptick in store count as the company ended 2013 with a total of 1,009 stores from 829 branches in the previous year.

Franchise stores accounted for 68 percent of all stores, slightly up from 67 percent in the previous year.

“For the whole 2013, sales generated by mature stores registered significant growth, with correspondingly significant effects to operating income,” Philseven said.

The sales uptick was attributed to improving economic conditions, the implementation of the new excise tax law and success of the food service lines.

In the fourth quarter, however, profit growth slowed down to 4.5 percent compared with the 92-percent surge in January to September.

“The seeming slowdown in earnings growth is due primarily to an ongoing transition from cash to accrual-based accounting that affects comparability across quarters,” the company said.