Gokongwei-led food and beverage manufacturer Universal Robina Corp. (URC) expects to recover from last year’s weaker earnings performance as lower coffee costs should translate into better margins.

“As coffee normalizes, we expect today’s volume momentum to translate into share gains, margin recovery, and strong through‑cycle returns for our stakeholders,” said URC President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Irwin Lee in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Friday, March 13.

He noted that in 2025, temporary commodity headwinds, particularly prolonged abnormally high coffee input costs, compressed margins and muted reported growth, but the franchise remains robust.

Lee added that, “Fiscal year (FY) 2025 was a year of resilient execution. We stayed focused on our core and kept building the capabilities to grow faster than the market, delivering sustained, volume‑led growth across priority categories and sharper in‑store and route‑to‑market execution.”

URC reported that its attributable core net income dipped four percent to ₱11 billion, while net income from continuing operations declined nine percent to ₱11.6 billion, reflecting tempered foreign exchange (forex) gains versus the prior year.

Full‑year 2025 sales improved four percent to ₱168 billion, driven by broad-based volume growth across all divisions and continued improvements in execution.

Total operating income was ₱16 billion, down four percent versus the previous year, primarily reflecting prolonged abnormally elevated coffee input costs.

Excluding coffee, URC delivered high single-digit operating income growth, supported by sustained category volumes, scale and cost efficiency gains in the international business, and tighter execution discipline.

URC’s branded consumer foods (BCF) business delivered a five-percent growth in sales to ₱115 billion last year, as BCF Philippines also grew five percent to ₱79 billion, underpinned by sustained volume growth, tighter in‑store execution, and pricing discipline.

BCF International rose four percent to ₱36 billion; URC International’s (URCI) performance was driven by scale and conversion efficiencies across key markets, which more than offset demand softness associated with geopolitical tensions in Indochina.

URC’s agro-industrial and commodities business saw a two-percent increase in sales to ₱53 billion despite softer feeds revenue amid a smaller hog population and lower sugar average selling prices (ASPs) in the latter part of the year.

Meanwhile, its flour business contributed to growth as volumes steadily ramped, supported by stable average selling prices.