Fruitas Holdings, Inc. (FHI) reported a consolidated net loss of P12.3 million for the first half of 2020 as sales fell by more than 50 percent due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said the quarantine imposed starting the second half of March 2020 caused the company’s first half revenue to decline from P941 million in 2019 to P462 million in 2020.

“The sales decline for the second quarter of 2020 was unprecedented as we had to suspend operation of almost all of our stores because of the quarantine. It also coincided with the summer months, when our beverage sales peak. Despite this, we kept our losses to a minimum by managing our costs”, said Fruitas President Lester Yu.

The company was able to reduce operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, by 40 percent from P416 million in first half of 2019 to P249 million in first half of 2020 to compensate for the lower revenue.

First quarter 2020 net profit was P14.6 million while second quarter 2020 net loss was P27.4 million.

For the second quarter alone, the company slashed operating expenses, excluding depreciation and amortization, by 65 percent from P213 million in 2019 to only P75 million in 2020.

“We chose to reopen stores more cautiously taking into account profit contribution of each store.  For June, our sales were already back to 33 percent of last year, despite Fruitas only operating an average of about 45 percent of our store network throughout the month,” said Yu. He added that, “We look forward to a better second half and are hopeful that the combined efforts of the government and private sector bring back consumer spending.”