Axelum Resources Corporation, the country’s leading manufacturer and exporter of coconut products, reported a 57 percent hike in net income to P318.42 million in the first half of 2021 from P202.94 million in the same period last year. 

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said revenues rose 30 percent to P3.10 billion from P2.39 billion primarily driven by robust volume growth across all core product segments.

In terms of volume, desiccated coconut grew 24 percent, while sweetened coconut, coconut milk powder and coconut water, increased 34 percent, 11 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

For 2021, Axelum said it has consistently produced record monthly output for its desiccated coconut, coconut water and coconut milk powder segments, keeping on-track to exceed last year’s total volume. 

“Our results paint a compelling growth story especially during these challenging times,” said Alum President and Chief Operating Officer Henry J. Raperoga.

He added that, “We are receiving increasing order quantities from our blue-chip customers, and at the same time attracting new clients from various geographies, as we continue to roll out innovative and high- margin products. This puts us in a unique position to accelerate our growth momentum moving forward.”

Gross margin significantly improved to 26 percent from 21 percent as a result of its mix-shift strategy and operational efficiencies, in spite of elevated input and shipping costs.

Axelum continues to ramp up production of its premium-priced high-margin product variants targeted for export markets.

In 2020, Axelum capitalized on extra operational downtime due to community lockdowns, to focus on strategic projects that will generate scale and optimize synergies to benefit its operations in the long-term.

Operating income jumped 105 percent to P387.38 million from P188.65 million, attributed to an effective enterprise-wide fixed-cost discipline. 

Notably, net margin expanded to 10 percent from 9 percent despite a normalized effective tax rate of 23 percent versus 6 percent in the first half of 2021, after fully realizing special tax incentives earlier this year.

To partially mitigate, Axelum was recently granted fresh tax holidays for its new agglomerated spray-dryer and latest beverage offering, pressed coconut water, on pioneer producer status. These incentives are seen to take effect starting in the second half of the year.