Universal Robina releases record first quarter results

Universal Robina’s first quarter results were buoyed by its beverage, bakery and confectionery lines. The Philippine manufacturer reported that its domestic branded business grew by nine percent from about

$ 938,000 to $1 million.

URC says its unaudited consolidated net income for the first fiscal quarter of 2007 (October to December 2006) of about $792,062.70, or 388 percent higher than reported in the same period last year.

While the Philippine beverage business grew by 64.3 percent in value terms and 82 percent in volume terms, on the back of a 100 percent value and 76 percent volume growth of its C2 green tea, domestic snack-food revenues declined marginally by 1.5 percent due to a shortage of potato flakes arising out of poor harvests affected by extreme weather conditions in Europe and the US.

Thailand continued to outperform with a revenue growth of 18 percent, but China, Indonesia and Malaysia posted declines.

China revenues decreased because of a deliberate scaling back of operations in order to rationalize operating costs.

Malaysia and Indonesia were affected by continuing changes to their distributor structures, and also by the shortage of potato flakes which adversely affected the performance of their potato chip brands.

“We continue to see gains from the phenomenal growth of our beverage business in the Philippines even as we weather the challenges of expanding our business overseas,” explains URC president and chief operating officer, Lance Gokongwei.