MANILA, Philippines — Universal Robina Corp. (URC), the Gokongwei-led snack foods giant, reported an unaudited net income of P24.3 billion last year, up 109 percent from a year ago, driven largely by the sale of its business in Australia and New Zealand.
URC president and CEO Irwin Lee said the company remains strong despite two years of the pandemic, with its brands maintaining leading positions in key markets.
“Coming through two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, URC remains strong – maintaining our leading positions in key markets and categories, continuing our innovation pipeline, becoming preferred partner of choice to customers and suppliers, step changing product supply chain transformation, and accelerating a people and planet friendly culture,” Lee said.
He said challenges continue, but URC remains optimistic.
“While the challenges and uncertainties of hyper cost inflation, global climate and political turbulence persist, our growth momentum and organizational commitment to excellence give us cause for optimism in 2022,”he said.
Moving forward, Lee said URC would continue to build its brands.
“We will continue to invest in our brands, build channel strength, make future bets in attractive white spaces, and operate efficiently and sustainably, all towards future-proofing our growth. URC remains strong today, and will be stronger tomorrow,” he said.
Sales, excluding Oceania, posted a three percent growth to P117 billion, still affected by continuing limitations on mobility, consumer sentiment and supply chain disruptions from the second year of the pandemic, especially the Delta variant wave.
The Branded Consumer Foods (BCF) business, excluding Oceania, ended flat at P83.5 billion, flat versus the same period last year as key food and beverage markets while slowly recovering, were still below pre-pandemic levels.
Domestic revenues were down two percent versus 2020 to end at P61.4 billion.
The international division grew by five percent to ct P22.2 billion as the strong growth momentum in the first half was partially tapered by the resurgence of COVID-19 in the region.
Overall, sales momentum accelerated in the latter half of the year, with fourth quarter sales up 12 percent from the third quarter and up 11 percent year on year.
On the other hand, operating income and core net income from continuing operations both declined by eight percent last year as record commodity prices translated into higher material input costs.
The impact on operating margins was tempered by price increases and various cost savings initiatives.
URC sold its Oceania business last year, monetizing the efficiencies and synergies it created in Australia and New Zealand, since 2016 and 2014, respectively. It also allowed the company to reinvest into higher-growth core markets such as the recently acquired Munchy’s business in Malaysia.