Customers’ spending power lifts Puregold profit
Listed grocery retailer Puregold Price Club Inc. grew profit in the first semester as more customers frequented its stores.
In a stock exchange filing on Friday, the billionaire Lucio Co-led company said its net income rose by 12.5 percent to P4.95 billion.
Revenues likewise inched up by 8 percent to P98.5 billion due to a slight growth in the gross margins of both its Puregold and S&R businesses.
“The company continues to see a buoyant trajectory in top line growth for the second half of 2024,” it said.
Puregold, which is under Co family-led holding firm Cosco Capital Inc., had 581 stores nationwide as of end-June after opening 15 new stores during the period. The network is composed of 498 Puregold stores, 28 S&R Membership Shopping Warehouses, and 55 S&R New York Style quick-service restaurants.
With a combined net worth of $2.3 billion, Co and his wife Susan were the newest additions to the Forbes list of 10 wealthiest Filipinos this year.
Through Cosco, which has interests in supermarket, liquor and property, the billionaires also plan to enter the renewable energy space.
Last month, Cosco announced its planned acquisition of all the 9.18 million shares of Nueva Vizcaya-based Matuno River Development Corp. (MRDC).
Cosco has yet to release the price tag as it is currently under negotiation and may be submitted to the Philippine Competition Commission, if needed.
MRDC is the developer of the 8.66-megawatt (MW) Matuno River hydroelectric power plant.
In March, Cosco also acquired 60 percent of Catuiran Hydropower Corp., the operator of an 8-MW hydropower plant in Oriental Mindoro, for P551.88 million. INQ
