August 13,
2013 9:11 pm [ manilatimes.net ]
by MADELAINE
B. MIRAFLOR
Listed
retailer Puregold Price Club Inc. decided to jack up its capital expenditure
for the year to P3.5 billion from the original P3 billion, as it plans to roll
out more stores than what it planned to build within the year.
In a company
presentation, Puregold announced that it has officially raised its 2013 capital
expenditure (capex) to P3.5 billion after increasing its store opening target
to 35 this year instead of only 25 stores.
In the first
half of 2013, the group opened an additional 21 stores. This brought the total
number of the group stores to 192 as of June 30, 2013, including seven S&R
branches and 15 branches from Company E.
According to
the Lucio Co-led supermarket chain, there are still 15 new Puregold store
locations contracted in various stages of design development and construction.
Puregold
concluded the first half of the year with a consolidated net income of P1.7
billion, representing an increase of 71.5 percent over its consolidated net
income of P1 billion for the same period in 2012.
This,
according to the company’s financial statements posted on the website of the
Philippine Stock Exchange, was the result of the continuous strategic expansion
of the group, including the major acquisitions it undertook in the previous
year and in the first quarter of the 2013.
For the
six-month period, the group also posted consolidated net sales of P33 billion
for an increase of P9.7 billion, or 41.9 percent, compared to P23.3 billion in
the same period in 2012.
Puregold
targets to grow its full-year net sales by 30 percent from P57.5 billion, as
well as a net profit margin of 5.1 percent. The company also said that it aims
“to pursue acquisitions as a template to further geographic expansions.”
News stores
put up in 2012, which were fully operating in 2013, accounted for 11 percent of
consolidated net sales of Puregold and contributed 33.1 percent to total sales
in the first half of 2013. Its S&R brand also further increased the
consolidated net sales with a 44.2-percent share to total growth.
On January
14, 2013, Puregold acquired 100 percent of the outstanding capital stock of
Company E Corp., which is similarly engaged in the business of trading goods
such as supermarket products on a retail and wholesale basis. On February 26,
2013, the application for the merger of the Gant Group and Puregold Jr.
Supermarket with the parent company as the surviving entity was approved by
Securities and Exchange Commission.
Effectively
on date of approval, the parent company absorbed 33 stores from Puregold Jr.
and 19 stores from the Gant Group.
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