Wilcon Depot, Inc. Reported P2.1 Billion in Net Income for 9M24

Wilcon Depot, Inc., the Philippines’ leading home improvement and finishing construction supplies retailer, today reported its nine months 2024 net income of P2.12 billion from net sales of P25.68 billion. Net sales were lower by 1.0% or P262 million year-on-year.

Ms. Lorraine Belo-Cincochan, Wilcon’s President and CEO, said that the softness of the demand for major home improvement and finishing construction supply persisted through the third quarter. The incessant rains and bad weather also did not help, which historically tends to postpone or delay construction projects.

Ms. Belo-Cincochan added, “we’re nearing completion of our 100-store target, we now have 98 stores and we expect to open our 100th branch before the end of the year. While expansion-related expenses have been the major drag on net income, we still believe that we have to be well-positioned to capture more market share as customer preference even for planned purchases has been trending toward convenience and accessibility especially since the pandemic. As always, we remain customer-focused and constantly improving our service delivery, taking advantage of technology to consistently give excellent value to our customers throughout the country.”

Net sales for the period amounted to P25.68 billion, a P262 million or 1.0% decrease from the same period last year. While new-store sales added 5.0% to last year’s same-period total sales, comparable sales, on the other hand, offset the increase as these was lower by 5.9%.

During the third quarter of 2024, the Company opened three (3) new depots, one (1) in Visayas, one (1) in Northern Luzon, and one (1) in Southern Luzon, bringing the total number of branches to 98 by the end of the period.

On a per format basis, sales from the depot-format stores totaled P24.65 billion, comprising 96.0% of total net sales. This was lower by 1.5% year-on-year. Sales from new depots contributed an additional 4.3% to the nine-month 2023 total sales, however, same store sales declined by 5.8%.

The smaller format, Do-It-Wilcon, which includes the original Home Essentials stores, recorded net sales of P738 million, growing by 34.3% year-on-year, contributed mainly by new Do-It-Wilcon stores. Same-store sales for the format declined by 4.1%, traced mainly to the lower sales of old Home Essentials stores.

The remaining 1.1% of total net sales was accounted for by project sales or sales to major institutional accounts, which amounted to P294 million, with a P75 million or 20.3% year-on-year decrease.

Gross profit amounted to P10.132 billion for the period, lower by 1.1% year-on-year, mainly as a result of the decline in net sales. Operating expenses, including lease-related interest expense, increased to P7.64 billion for the period, 8.7% higher year-on-year. The increase was attributable mainly to expansion-related expenses such as trucking, depreciation and amortization, manpower, rent and utilities. Operating net other income amounted to P311 million, lower by 23% year-on-year. The decline is due primarily to the re-classification of P77 million of the allowance for inventory losses provided in the second quarter to loss due to fire upon the completion of the investigation and reconciliation reports. The re-classification to operating net other income has no additional impact on the third quarter or the nine-month net income. Meanwhile, non-operating net other income amounted to P24 million.