Puregold sales improve amid economy's reopening

MANILA, Philippines — Supermarket giant Puregold Price Club Inc.’s bottomline reaped benefits of the domestic economy’s reopening in the second quarter as sales and store traffic improve.

In a disclosure sent to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Tuesday, Puregold reported its consolidated net income inched up 5.4% year-on-year to P4.2 billion in the first half of 2022.

“This was principally driven by the continuous organic expansion of the Group’s grocery retail outlets, strategic cost management and sustained strong consumer demand,” it said in its disclosure.

Gross profits rose 9.8% year-on-year to P15.7 billion in the same period. 

The supermarket giant raked in P82.2 billion in sales in the first six months of the year, improving 7.9% on a yearly basis following looser restrictions in the second quarter. This led to foot traffic to bounce back 10% year-on-year within its various stores nationwide. 

As a result of improving operations, the company’s operating expenses expanded 6.9% year-on-year to P10.4 billion in the first half of 2022.

Likewise, Puregold said this led to same store sales growth to fare better within its namesake grocery chain and S&R Warehouse Clubs, its chain of membership-only retail warehouses.

Puregold operates 507 stores of various iterations nationwide, which include 438 stores and 22 S&R stores, among others as of June.

Shares at Puregold currently trade up 0.67% at P30.2 apiece on trading on Tuesday.