The earnings dip was blamed on lower gross margins and higher operating expenses tied to new store rollouts and salary increases.
Management projects recovery in latter half of 2025
“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,” she added.
Belo-Cincochan noted that newer stores have begun to deliver profits after a year of losses. While same-store sales fell 3.6 percent, smaller format Do-It-Wilcon stores saw a healthy 11.1 percent increase.
Gross profit dropped to P3.26 billion, down 1.7 percent, while operating costs surged nearly 8 percent to P2.66 billion.
