Cosco Capital Inc., the listed retail holding firm of businessman Lucio L. Co, said its income in 2021 grew 5 percent to P10.5 billion from the previous year’s P10 billion.
The company said its income for the period is also 13 percent higher than the pre-pandemic consolidated core net income of P9.3 billion.
It said revenues slightly fell to P174.4 billion, some 1 percent lower than last year’s P177.3 billion. The company said its business segments were able to navigate through the second year of the pandemic, by way of a better bottom line results from a combination of the gross margin enhancements thru stronger suppliers supports, sustained strategic cost and expense management as well as the income tax savings from the implementation of the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE).
The group’s grocery retailing businesses, Puregold Price Club Inc. and S&R Membership Shopping Club, contributed 63 percent of total core net income, followed by the liquor distribution with 23 percent, commercial real estate segment with 13 percent and the group’s specialty retailing segment, Office Warehouse Inc., accounted for 1 percent.
The grocery retail segment experienced a decline in its consolidated revenues by nearly 3 percent to P164.1 billion mainly driven by a decline in customer traffic in its Puregold supermarkets due to the continuing impact of the pandemic. It managed to post a 1.4 percent growth in net income to P8.18 billion resulting from the improvement in gross profit margins as well as strategic cost reduction measures.
“Despite the prevailing environment, the grocery retail group continued to implement its organic expansion strategy and opened a total of 30 new Puregold stores and two new S&R warehouse clubs in 2021,” the company said.
Puregold currently has a total of 499 stores nationwide, of which 430 branches were its grocery chain, 22 S&R membership shopping warehouses and 47 pizza stores.
The liquor distribution business, now under The Keepers Holdings Inc., has recorded a consolidated revenue amounting to P11.03 billion, a 35 percent growth versus a year ago on the back of a 32-percent growth in volume of cases sold totaling more than 4.46 million cases in 2021.
The commercial real estate segment posted flat revenues at P1.69 billion in 2021 as it continued to extend rental reliefs compared to the 9-month period starting in the second quarter of 2020.
The segment managed to improve its net income by 30 percent to P915 million from the previous P700 million due to a combination of strategic cost efficiencies in the management of its cost of services as well as operating expenses coupled by the lower provisions for income tax pursuant to CREATE.
Despite the pandemic, the group continued to expand its real estate assets portfolio through the acquisition of additional land banking assets for future development and initiated the development of two commercial assets during the year.
Revenues of Office Warehouse fell 7 percent to P1.56 billion as it continued to deal with the effects of hard lockdowns during the year. Net income declined to P50 million from P56 million in the previous year.