Wilcon Depot, Inc., the Philippines’ leading home improvement and finishing construction supplies retailer, reported a 27.4 percent drop in net income to ₱2.53 billion last year from ₱3.48 billion in 2023 as sales dipped while expenses rose.
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, the firm said net sales was lower by 1.2 percent at ₱34.17 billion in view of the comparable sales’ decline of 6.2 percent. Gross profit contracted by 2.5 percent to ₱13.35 billion year-on-year.
Operating expenses, including lease-related interest expense increased 9.2 percent mainly due to the opening of new stores, totaled ₱10.46 billion.
“We finally achieved our 100th-store target in December last year. At the end of 2024, we had 89 depots and 11 smaller-format, Do It Wilcon (DIW) stores.
“The year 2024 continued to be a challenging year for home improvement as the market remained soft. While we have seen improvements in customer and transaction counts in the fourth quarter, ticket and basket sizes shrank as customers continue to down trade,” said Wilcon Depot President and CEO Lorraine Belo- Cincochan.
She added that, “For 2025, we shall be opening eight new stores, the preparation and construction of half of which were already started in 2024.
“While we recognize the impact of the continuing expansion on our short-term earnings, we believe that putting ourselves in the best position to serve our customers when demand bounces back will yield the best results in the long run.”
Meanwhile Belo-Cincohan said they are also implementing continuous improvements in merchandising, store layout and planograms, training and development, systems and processes, among others, “to stay relevant with and be able to serve our current and potential customers better.”
Net sales for the year was lower in view mainly of the decline in comparable sales both invoice counts and ticket sizes of old stores decreased year-on-year. Ten new stores were added during the year for a total of 100 operating stores by the end of 2024.
The depot format stores’ net sales amounted to ₱32.83 billion, accounting for 96.1 percent of total net sales. Total sales were lower by 1.5 percent while comparable sales dipped by 5.8 percent. The contribution from new stores was offset by the decline in comparable sales.
The smaller format DIW’s sales totaled P₱996 million, accounting for 2.9 percent of sales, growing by 34.4 percent or ₱255 million traceable to the addition of two new stores during the year.
Comparable sales for the format decreased by 3.5 percent attributable mainly to the lower sales from the older, formerly Home Essentials branches.
Project sales, contributing the remaining one percent to total sales, amounted to ₱347 million, lower by 35.7 percent year-on-year.
Correspondingly, gross profit of P13.349 billion was lower by 2.5 percent or ₱345 million year-on-year due to lower sales and gross profit margin rate.