Holiday sales make up for loses within the year

CEBU, Philippines - The holiday season is one of the busiest times for businesses especially in the food industry. This was attested by Stanley Go, the Vice President for Virginia Foods Inc. who said that with the tough times this year, they are happy to be performing better during the holidays.

Go said that for Virginia, they enjoy an increase of sales of 30 to 40 percent starting November compared to the regular months. The “vacation months” is the slowest said Go.

According to him, like other companies in the food industry, the growth for the holidays of this percentage is common although he said that this may be slower than the previous years.

He said that they in general, the company had a decline in sales this year compared to 2008 where they had a 38 percent increase compared to this year which only had a 15 percent boost.

It was a tough year this year said Go. “The food industry is the last to be affected but nevertheless it was still affected.”

However, he added that they are looking forward for 2010 and are optimistic with the recovery due to the confidence of the consumers to spend more.

He said that there was already an increase in consumption in the previous months which Go said is one of the reasons that they are encouraged to extend their range.

This despite the huge competition, Go said where a lot are also very strong in their marketing and distribution but he said that they will be working on this for 2010 and that they will be coming up with a lot of changes for the year ahead.

Presently, Go said that they have more of their operations in Visayas and Mindanao but is looking forward in expanding to Luzon however they are very cautious in their approach.

He said that as of now, the big bulk of their sales is in Visayas and Mindanao with 93 percent and only less than 10 percent in Luzon .

Next year, Go said that they will be focusing on enhancing their services through upgrading their facilities and improving their productivity as well as launching more new products. —AJ de la Torre