Wilcon Depot, Inc., the country’s top home improvement and construction supply retailer, reported lower net income for the first quarter of 2025.
Net income dropped by P204 million or 27.5 percent year-on-year to P536 million due to lower gross profit and higher operating expenses, the company said Monday in a disclosure to the stock exchange.
“Despite the drop in net earnings, which was mainly driven by lower sales in the first two months of the year, we are expecting a turnaround especially in the second half given the encouraging average daily sales right before and right after the long Easter holidays in April,” said Wilcon president Lorraine Belo-Cincochan.
“Should this sales trend continue and especially if it improves further, we expect to reverse the decline in net earnings in this quarter later in the year.”
First quarter net sales inched up to P8.408 billion, up 1.2 percent year-on-year as the company opened two new stores during the period.
Same store sales declined by 3.6 percent.
Meanwhile, gross profit fell by 1.7 percent to P3.264 billion due to lower margin rates from both exclusive and non-exclusive brands.
The contribution of in-house and exclusive brands slightly dropped to 52.2 percent from 52.6 percent, mainly because of lower project sales.
Operating expenses from January to March this year rose 7.8 percent to P2.663 billion as a result of higher depreciation, lease-related interest, and salaries.
Operating other income also fell by 25.1 percent to P96 million.
Despite weak first quarter results, Belo-Cincochan maintains a positive outlook for the remainder of the year.
“We are also encouraged by the performance of our below one year-old stores, which generated positive earnings as a whole, after quarterly negative results all of last year and despite a very soft market during the first two months of the year. We are hoping that this indicates a growing sales trend that will be sustained from here on,” she said.
Wilcon’s store network stood at 102 as of end of March 2025.
The company earlier reported plans to open 8 to 10 stores for this year.
