D&L Industries, the country’s largest specialty food ingredients, plastics and oleochemicals firm, is currently participating in a vaccination drive initiated by the Quezon City Local Government Unit (LGU).
In a statement, the firm said the objective of the vaccination drive is to hasten the vaccination of more Filipinos at the soonest possible time.
The partnership featured the Quezon City LGU supplying the vaccines and supervision at the venue provided by Ever Gotesco, while D&L contributed the medical team.
The partnership has conducted three weekend vaccination drives so far and eyes organizing further vaccination schedules in the coming weeks, as additional vaccines become available.
“We fully support this initiative by Mayor Joy Belmonte and the local government of Quezon City. We find the partnership highly innovative and responsive to the needs of our people during this pandemic,” said D&L President Alvin D. Lao.
He added that, “We’d like to extend our deep appreciation to Mayor Joy and the Quezon City government for giving us the opportunity to be of service to the public. We’d also like to thank Ever Gotesco for providing the venue and staff support. By working together, we can have more people vaccinated at the soonest possible time.”
With D&L’s crucial role in the Philippine manufacturing industry, supplying essential food and sanitation chemicals, its employees, who have been regularly reporting to work ever since the pandemic started, are considered as economic frontliners and were among those who were inoculated during the vaccination drive.
A limited number of economic frontliners from D&L and Ever Gotesco were accommodated during the morning sessions of the drive while the afternoon sessions were entirely devoted to priority groups from the communities in Quezon City.
“We put serious efforts on educating our employees about the benefits of getting vaccinated. As a result, an overwhelming majority of them are now inclined to take the vaccine. With an increasing number of our employees being vaccinated, we hope to develop herd immunity, at least within the company, over the next couple of months, subject to vaccine availability. We see this as taking an active role in helping end the pandemic,” Lao added.
While the pandemic is still ongoing, D&L believes that it is now in a far better position to thrive in an adverse environment and a potentially protracted economic recovery period.
As the majority of the products that the company manufactures cater to basic essential industries such as food, oleochemicals, plastics and cleaning chemicals, the company sees continued strong demand ahead.
With all of the company’s business segments posting significant recovery year-on-year in the first quarter of 2021, recurring net income for the period increased by 35 percent YoY to P695 million.
Including a one-time gain of P29 million related to the retroactive implementation of the CREATE Act in the year 2020, total net income for the quarter stood at P724 million, up 41 percent YoY.
Assuming that first quarter 2021 income holds steady in the next couple of quarters, the company is set to at least reach its net income level in 2019.