RFM Corp. reported a profit of P212 million in the first quarter of the year, down 4 percent from last year’s P220.83 million.
Sales grew 3 percent P3.2 billion from P3.11 billion.
Jose Ma. Concepcion III, RFM president, said the company saw mixed results for its ice cream, milk, pasta and institutional bread and flour units.
“Prior to the lockdown, we saw strong growth across most units. However, the lockdown affected our ice cream sales, especially in the out-of-home segments as consumers were restricted to their homes,” Concepcion said.
“The stay-at-home situation shifted more buying to our Selecta Milk, Royal and Fiesta Pasta and sauces, as well as White King hotcakes, champorado and arroz caldo. Institutional bread and flour sales were hit by closures of fastfood outlets,” he added.
According to Concepcion, the increased demand for RFM’s packaged pasta and milk also highlighted challenges in production and supply chain as well as in plant safety and health of workers under the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
“Our manpower and delivery personnel were limited by the ECQ even as we housed some staff in our sites to ensure steady production of our food products,” he said.
The sales and income outlook of the company for the second quarter is expected to be “more subdued than 2019,” Concepcion noted.
“The limited mobility and spending power of consumers will bear down on the sales of ice cream and institutional sales to fastfood outlets even as milk and pasta will see sustained demand,” he said.
Concepcion also said RFM has scaled back its capital spending for the year and reconfigured expenses to adjust to the post coronavirus disease scenario.
“We continue to observe and adapt to the new reality. The gradual opening of the economy balanced with measures to contain the virus is crucial to every company’s and entrepreneur’s long term survival. We would need to continue the collaboration of the private and public sectors in ensuring our workers have food on their table and have work to come back to when more economic activities are allowed,” he said.
“To this end, RFM will be part of the private sector effort to provide regular rapid testing to its manpower across its plant and office sites,” Concepcion added.
