MANILA, Philippines — Lower sales due to the long Easter holidays falling in March this year pulled down earnings of home improvement and construction supplies retailer Wilcon Depot Inc. in the first quarter.
Wilcon reported a 23.1 percent year-on-year reduction in net income to P740 million from January to March.
The company said the decline caused primarily by the drop in net sales in March as the long Easter holidays shifted from April last year to March this year.
Net sales during the three-month period amounted to P8.31 billion, 2.5 percent lower year-on-year.
“Our earnings for the first quarter may have declined by 23 percent year-on-year, but it’s still higher than any quarter’s earnings prior to 2022,” Wilcon president Lorraine Belo-Cincochan said.
“This quarter’s performance was driven primarily by the considerable year-on-year drop in March sales because of the Easter holidays falling in March this year and exacerbated by the fact that March last year was our highest grossing month,” she said.
Belo-Cincochan said Wilcon looks forward to better results in the future as the company works toward improving its performance to reach or even beat its 2022 results.
“Our April year-on-year sales growth reversed the decline in March and we are hoping that our improving average daily sales will be sustained from here on,” she said.
Belo-Cincochan said the company remains on track to reach its 100-store target by the end of the year.