| FOOD and beverage firm RFM Corp. reported a 200-percent increase in consolidated net income to P63 million for the first quarter this year from P21 million a year earlier.
In a disclosure filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the firm said that consolidated net sales rose 16 percent to P1.7 billion from P1.4 billion in the same comparable period.
Chief financial officer Raymond B. Azcarate said “all of the company’s business units performed well.”
Sales of Fiesta Pasta grew 21 percent; Selecta ice cream 20 percent; flour 18 percent; Selecta milk and Sunkist juices 11 percent; and Swift meat products 9 percent.
Azcarate said higher volume and selling prices in the company’s food and beverage products were responsible for better results in the first three months of the year. New products Selecta fortified filled milk, Moo Choco Craze milk, Sunkist tea drinks in PET bottles and Swift SAM brown hotdogs also boosted RFM’s financial performance.
Despite the rising cost of domestic raw materials, freight and handling, and utilities and wages, the company was able to maintain its gross margins due to higher sales and selling prices.
The strong peso also helped improve margins by lowering the cost of imported raw materials.
At the same time, the company’s operating expenses as a percentage to sales were kept under control. This pushed operating income to almost P90 million during the first three months.
The company’s first-quarter performance builds on RFM’s continuing turnaround over the past two years. In its audited financial statements for 2006, the company reported a consolidated net income of P203 million, up more than 20 percent from P168 million in 2005.
Its audited net income in 2005 was subsequently restated to a higher P214 million in accordance with new accounting standards that took effect in 2006 regarding revenue recognition for sales of property units under precompletion contracts.
RFM is also engaged in property development through its 100-percent owned subsidiary, Philippine Townships, which posted a 5-percent increase in first-quarter sales to P272 million from P259 million in the same period last year.
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