Home improvement and construction retailer Wilcon Depot Inc. announced a decline in its net income in the first nine months of 2025, citing higher operating expenses (Opex) and slower sales attributed to the typhoon season and other natural disasters.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Friday, Nov. 14, the company reported that sales disruptions from natural calamities contributed to the fall in its nine-month net income to ₱1.866 billion from ₱2.12 billion in the same period last year.

Despite the drop in net income, Lorraine Belo-Cincochan, Wilcon’s President and Chief Executive Officer, assured that underlying demand will allow the business to improve on its latest figures.

“We have already observed spurts of uptick in home improvement spending as early as May, but the momentum was intermittently disrupted by mostly natural calamities,” she said in the disclosure. “While disruptions continued in the third quarter caused by typhoons, flooding, and even earthquakes, demand continued its increasing trend.”

“We are hopeful that this trend will be sustained and that we will be able to completely turn around our first half results by the end of the year.”

Wilcon is also pursuing expansion efforts to capture more market share and provide wider service coverage. From January to September, the company’s net sales increased slightly by 2.6 percent to ₱657 million. During this period, Wilcon opened four new retail stores and closed one smaller branch, bringing its total operating store count to 103.

Net sales from depots, which are the main revenue contributor, grew by 2.9 percent to ₱25.37 million in their contribution to overall sales, while project sales saw a steep decline of 53.3 percent to ₱137 million.

Operating expenses, including lease-related interest, rose 3.9 percent to ₱7.94 billion.

“The increase was driven mostly by the increases in depreciation and amortization, manpower expenses, supplies, among others partly offset by the decrease in short-term rent, trucking and advertising and promotions,” the company stated.

Despite the nine-month decrease, Wilcon’s third-quarter performance showed resilience, generating a 15.8 percent net income expansion to ₱703 million, buoyed by its store sales.

“The same store sales improvement was mainly driven by increased transaction count brought about by higher comparative footfall,” Belo-Cincochan noted.

Net sales during the quarter increased by 8.6 percent to ₱732 million. Depot sales totaled ₱8.8 billion, while project sales stood at ₱53 million.