Wilcon Depot Inc., the Philippines’ leading home improvement and finishing construction supplies retailer, posted a 9.5 percent drop in net income to P3.48 billion last year as expansion-related expenses resulted in rising operating costs.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), the firm said net sales improved 3.1 percent to P34.604 billion in 2023 due mainly to the sales generated from the new stores. Gross profit also expanded 4.3 percent to P13.69 billion.
The company said its board of directors approved in its March 20, 2024 meeting the distribution of cash dividends totaling P0.26 per share.
“The softness of the market persisted through the fourth quarter, which led to a modest growth in our topline for the year, 100% of which was contributed by the new stores,” said Wilcon Depot President and CEO Lorraine Belo-Cincochan.
She noted that “comparable sales dipped by 3.4 percent, impacting directly our net income as operating expenses conversely continued to grow. It can be noted that in 2022, our comparable sales growth was at an impressive 14.2 percent, which reflected the robust demand for home improvement products post-mobility restrictions.”
“In 2023, on the other hand, there was an apparent slowdown in home improvement spending not only here but globally as well. Despite this slowdown, we continue to pursue our 100-store goal by 2024, a year earlier than initially planned. We believe that we have to be in the best position to serve our market once home improvement spending rekindles,” Belo-Cincochan said.
Wilcon opened nine stores in 2023 and ended the year with 90 stores as it also closed one Home Essentials branch and replaced another one with a new depot.
“We have gotten the approval for the use of ‘Do It Wilcon’ (DIW) as an additional trade name and we shall be completing the renaming of our Home Essentials branches into DIW in 2024," she said.
“For 2024, we are planning to open two DIW branches and eight depot format stores. Anchoring on our 47-year experience in this sector, we remain confident that we will be able to adapt to the post-Covid home improvement market by being consistently customer-centric and improving our operations to continually give excellent value to our customers even as we expand our market reach,” she added.