Philippines

Late sales pickup fail to lift Wilcon’s 2020 take

The Philippine's biggest home improvement retailer, Wilcon, operates 63 stores.
The Philippine's biggest home improvement retailer, Wilcon, operates 63 stores.
15.04.2021

A belated pickup in sales failed to lift Wilcon Depot's financial results in a year characterized by constraints in public mobility and a pandemic. The Philippines' biggest home improvement retailer ended 2020 with net sales of PHP 22.63 bn (Philippine pesos, EUR 392.2 mio), down 7.5 per cent from 2019 despite a 6.2 per cent uptick to PHP 6.84 bn in the fourth quarter attributed to revenues from new stores.
Same store sales inched down 0.5 per cent as the company grappled with two months of store closures in Luzon - the country's biggest island - and strict quarantine protocols within Metro Manila, the capital, as part of anti-Covid-19 measures.
Depots, Wilcon's standalone format, accounted for 97 per cent of sales while Home Essentials, its smaller store whose outlets are mostly in the capital, contributed 2.2 per cent.
Initially planning to open eight stores in 2020, Wilcon trimmed its store openings for the year to six. It ended 2020 with 63 branches nationwide. The two outlets left over started operations last January, allowing the company to meet its commitment to operate 65 branches by end-2021 ahead of schedule.
The company allocated PHP 2.5 bn for capital expenditures, of which 68 per cent went to new outlets, 24 per cent was spent on warehouses, extensions and renovations, and 7.6 per cent was allocated for furniture, equipment and IT software.
Wilcon plans to open seven more stores this year and has allotted PHP 3.2 bn for capital expenditures. Apart from new outlets, the outlay will also be used for warehouses, renovations and extensions.
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