Century Pacific hikes earnings by 12%

MANILA, Philippines — Century Pacific Food Inc. (CNPF), the Po family’s listed canned food company, saw its net income grow 11.9 percent to P2.8 billion in 2018.

Consolidated revenue rose 15 percent to P37.9 billion, driven primarily by the strong growth in branded sales.

Revenue from the branded business accounted for 74 percent of the total, equivalent to P8 billion in sales or an increase of 20 percent year-on-year.

All three sub-units of marine, meat and milk registered  higher sales on an expanding base.

CNPF chief finance officer Oscar Pobre said demand for the company’s products remained robust.

The company’s initiatives to improve distribution and availability – especially in Visayas and Mindanao – allowed CNPF to deliver better performance in provincial areas.

“This, combined with continued investments in our brands, helped strengthen our market positions in both core and emerging categories,” he said.

Meanwhile, the company’s revenue from the OEM segment totalled P9.9 billion or equivalent to 26 percent of the company-wide sales. This represents a more tempered increase of four percent year-on-year with the normalizing of pass-on prices in tuna and coconut.

In terms of profitability, earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation or EBITDA stood at P4.5 billion, bringing year-on-year growth to 14 percent.

“Our margins in 2018 remained flattish year-on-year thanks to our diversified business, with softer input prices in certain parts of the portfolio offsetting pressure from other raw materials and packaging costs,” said Pobre.

For this year, the company vowed to introduce some new products.

“We are tagging 2019 as our year of innovation with the introduction of a number of new products in our pursuit of long-term and sustainable growth. We will also continue investing in our people, brands, facilities, and supply chain, alongside an enterprise-wide initiative to monitor and measure environment, social, and governance metrics as well,” said Pobre.