Cosco Capital, Inc., the listed retail holding firm of businessman Lucio L. Co, reported a 16.8 percent growth in consolidated net income to P12.28 billion last year from the P10.5 billion earned in 2021.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said strong revenues from all business segments also lifted consolidated revenues by 13 percent to P197.1 billion in 2022 from P174.4 billion in 2021.
“The company continued to benefit from the economic recovery amidst the prevailing macroeconomic challenges by way of higher revenue growth across all its business segments which indicates the recovering consumer demand,” Cosco said.
It added that, “Better bottom-line results were due to a combination of the gross margin enhancements thru stronger supplier support, sustained strategic cost and expense management leading to a slower growth in expenses versus revenues.”
In 2022, the group's grocery retailing businesses, Puregold Price Club, Inc. and S&R Membership Shopping Club, contributed 63 percent of total core net income, followed by the Liquor Distribution with 25 percent, Commercial Real Estate segment with 11 percent, and Specialty Retail at 1 percent.
The grocery retailing group’s consolidated net sales for 2022 was higher by 12.3 percent to P184.3 billion while net income improved 13.5 percent to P9.3 billion.
The Commercial Real Estate segment posted a 7 percent growth in rental revenue to P1.81 billion in 2022 as business operations has improved due to easing mobility restrictions and increased level of economic activities.
However, the real estate segment saw its net income decrease by 7.6 percent to P845 million in 2022 versus P915 million in 2021 due to higher power and utility costs.
For the Specialty Retailing business segment, Office Warehouse, Inc.’s revenues grew by 15 percent to P1.79 billion as it continued to see a recovery from its business operations. Net income improved by 38 percent to P69 million in 2022 from P50 million in 2021.
The Liquor Distribution business thru The Keepers Holdings Inc. reported a new record high consolidated net income of P2.23 billion in 2022, a 41.1 percent growth versus the previous year due to the strong sales performance from all categories (imported wine, spirits and specialty beverages).
The firm recorded a consolidated revenue amounting to P13.96 billion, 26.5 percent higher than 2021 on the back of a 20 percent growth in volume of cases sold totaling more than 5.3 million cases sold in 2022.
This was driven principally by the continued robust performance of Alfonso, the leading imported brandy in the market, which has already surpassed its pre pandemic levels, premiumizing market and on-premise channel rebound.
Sales performance from our other spirits, wines as well as Specialty Beverages categories also registered remarkable growth contributing to the overall revenue growth during the same period which clearly indicates a recovering demand with the easing of community restrictions.