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RETAIL
trader Uniwide Sales Warehouse Club Inc. managed to trim
down its first quarter loss to P30.46 million from
P69.01 million a year earlier.
The
improvement mainly came from a reduction in its
operating expenses from P92.41 million in 2006 to P68.11
million in the same comparable period.
“The
improvement in operating expenses can be attributed to
the rationalization of personnel related cost, decline
in occupancy-related cost and the reduction of various
office and store expenses,” the company said in a report
to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Consolidated revenues, however, fell 57 percent to
P89.27 million versus P209.96 million because of low
turnover from its supermarket operations.
The
company is now in its fifth year of rehabilitation.
A review
of the group’s operations for the past four years shows
the need for a revised operating strategy to recover
from its financial problems.
“Pressed
for lack of fresh capital, it needs to resort to other
business strategies for it to recover from the losses it
has been continuously incurring,” Uniwide Sales said in
its report.
Uniwide
also added that appraisal of other properties—which may
be considered for payment to unsecured creditors—is
ongoing.
“To
satisfy the obligation to…unsecured creditors, the
company is considering some measures including the
payment of liabilities through dacion of available free
assets of the company,” it said.
Uniwide
has started doing the inventory of available free assets
to be used or dacioned to creditors in place of cash
payment. Final list of the free assets and the amount of
liabilities these assets can cover would be available
within this quarter.
The
warehouse club concept involves offering consumers a
wide range of products at low prices in a “no frills”
environment. The products sold by Uniwide Sales outlets
range from groceries and household goods to electrical
appliances and recreational goods.
The
company is a unit of listed Uniwide Holdings Inc. (UHI).
On June 25, 1999, UHI group, together with the other
members of the Uniwide Group of Companies, filed a
petition with the SEC for the declaration of temporary
suspension of all debt payments, which the SEC approved
on June 29, 1999.
On April
11, 2000, the SEC approved Uniwide’s Amended
Rehabilitation Plan and declared Uniwide in a state of
Suspension of Payments. On October 12, 2001, Uniwide
filed its Second Amendment to the Rehabilitation Plan,
which the SEC approved on December 23, 2002. |
