Wilcon Depot Inc., the Philippines’ largest retailer of home improvement and construction supplies, is pressing ahead with the nationwide expansion even as the company grapples with thinning margins and stagnant same-store sales growth.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, Lorraine Belo-Cincochan, Wilcon president and chief executive officer, said the retailer intends to open eight new locations in 2026, maintaining its aggressive footprint strategy despite a more volatile earnings environment.

The company has already inaugurated three stores as of March, following a year of significant portfolio reshuffling.

In 2025, Wilcon added six new depots to its network while shuttering two smaller-format “Do-It-Wilcon” stores. It also successfully reopened a depot that was destroyed by fire in 2024, ending the year with a total of 104 operational sites. This expansionary push comes as Wilcon seeks to offset cooling internal growth with a broader geographic reach.

Financial results for the full year 2025 reflect the headwinds facing the Philippine retail sector. Wilcon reported a 3.3 percent decline in net income to ₱2.45 billion, as rising operational costs and squeezed margins overshadowed a modest uptick in the top line.

Annual net sales rose 3.7 percent to ₱35.44 billion, a growth figure primarily fueled by revenue from newly opened outlets. Comparable sales growth, a key metric for retail health, remained essentially flat at -0.3 percent for the year.

However, a stronger performance in the final months of the year provided a glimmer of recovery. Fourth-quarter net income surged 41.3 percent year-on-year to ₱580 million, supported by net sales of ₱9.11 billion.

Belo-Cincochan attributed the turnaround to a strategic pivot in the latter half of the year. The company recalibrated its in-store organizational structures, marketing plans, and store layouts to reverse earlier performance downturns. This shift helped drive a 26 percent increase in net income for the second half of the year compared to the first.

The company's primary depot format continued to dominate its revenue stream, generating ₱34.14 billion, or 96.3 percent of total sales. While this represented a 4 percent increase from 2024, the entirety of that gain was derived from new store contributions, as same-store sales growth for the depot segment remained stagnant.

In contrast, the smaller DIW format saw a 12.8 percent jump in sales to ₱1.12 billion, bolstered by a 6.8 percent rise in same-store sales. Project sales, which account for a minor 0.5 percent of the business, fell nearly 47 percent to ₱185 million.

Profitability remains a focal point for management as gross profit grew at a slower pace than sales, rising 2.5 percent to ₱13.68 billion.

While Wilcon increased the sales contribution of its higher-margin in-house and exclusive brands to 52.4 percent, this was partially offset by lower margin rates across both its proprietary and non-exclusive product lines. Meanwhile, operating expenses climbed 3.7 percent to ₱10.85 billion, driven by higher depreciation, amortization, and manpower costs associated with the larger store network.