MANILA, Philippines - Philippine Seven Corp., the exclusive local licensee of convenience store chain 7-Eleven, posted strong earnings growth in the first nine months of the year driven by improvement in same store sales and continued store expansion all over the country.
Net income jumped 8.5 percent in the first three quarters to P468.3 million from P431.4 million a year ago, the firm said yesterday.
Retail sales of all stores during the nine-month period also rose 18.1 percent to P14.8 billion from P12.5 billion in 2013.
“The rate of net income growth could have been faster if not for the high base year effects. Earnings in the previous year were temporarily benefitted during the first few months of the implementation of the excise tax on cigarettes,” Philseven said.
“In addition, accrual estimates in the first three quarters of this year for marketing income are likely more conservative than last year. Hence, as the impact of the said factors normalize, last quarter and full year earnings growth is expected to be brought more in line with the rate of increase in sales,” it added.
For the third quarter period alone, sales growth of the company accelerated to 25.7 percent from only 14.5 percent in the first half driven by the opening of 169 new stores in the nine-month period and the recovery in sales generated by mature stores.
Store count in the first three quarters grew 24.8 percent to 1,169 stores, with franchisees accounting for 66 percent of total.