Wilcon still hoping to get back on 'growth path'

Wilcon [WLCON 7.60, down 1.0%; 0% avgVol] [link], the “country’s leading home improvement and finishing construction supply retailer”, held its annual stockholders’ meeting, where WLCON’s Chairman Emeritus (William Belo) and its current CEO (Lorraine Belo-Cincochan) both said that they’re “looking forward to Wilcon turning around its 2024 results this year and going back to its growth path in the succeeding years.” As the CEO noted, WLCON posted lower year-on-year sales numbers “despite executing well [WLCON’s] primary strategic goal”. The press release about the meeting noted a question from a shareholder regarding the company’s growth prospects, and indicated that the CEO’s response was just a reiteration of the founder’s original message; “the company is looking forward to going back to its growth path with the improvements [WLCON has] implemented in terms of improving sales and increasing cost efficiency”.

MB bottom-line: Speaking scientifically for a moment, the vibes are off AF here. I’m not as confident as WLCON is that all it has to do is wait for its profitability to improve, as though it were some reversion to the mean situation. WLCON’s been talking about a soft market for a long time now. If the company executed its primary strategic goal well, but sales still dropped, then perhaps it’s time to start thinking about changing that primary strategic goal. Remember when Jollibee’s path to riches was simply building more Jollibee locations? I don’t know the path forward for WLCON on this one, and I’m not about to provide free consulting, but if I were a shareholder, I’d demand better from this management team.

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