SSI income down 56% in January-September

MANILA, Philippines - SSI Group Inc., the country’s largest specialty store retailer, reported a 56 percent drop in net income in the first nine months of the year  to P306 million due to lower margins.

Core net income slumped to P394.5 million from P729.6 million in 2015.

For the third quarter, net income reached P65 million while core net income stood at P105 million.

The group generated P12.6 billion in total revenues, up 7.2 percent due to the diversity of the company’s brand portfolio and sustained consumer demand.

“During the third quarter, we continued to selectively expand our store network, rationalize underperforming stores and strengthen our e-commerce properties,” SSI Group Inc. president Anthony Huang said.

In line with its store rationalization program, SSI Group opened 42 new stores from January to September while at the same time closed 114 stores, This brought total specialty stores to 720.

Meanwhile, its portfolio consisted of 114 brands.

The company also operates four online properties: payless.ph, the first website of Payless ShoeSource outside the US; beautybar.com.ph, the first e-commerce site for a local personal care chain; ssilife.com.ph, an online market place carrying more than 60 brands; and 158.db.com.ph, the Group’s outlet and discount site.

The company’s gross profits, meanwhile, inched lower to P6.3 billion while gross profit margin declined to 49.5 percent, owing to increased discounting and promotional activities the group implemented to survive a more competitive environment.

Total operating expenses amounted to P5.4 billion, 12.6 percent higher than the year ago.

“For the balance of the year we remain focused on driving top line growth and operating efficiencies as we look forward to a strong Christmas shopping season. I remain confident that the actions we are taking in 2016 will ensure a return to growth from 2017 onwards.” Huang said.