RFM Corp. said preliminary report shows its profit grew 14 percent to P1.2 billion in 2023 from P1.07 billion the prior year.
Sales last year reached P20.7 billion, up 7 percent from 2022, driven by sales growth in milk, pasta, flour, ice cream and bread segments.
The company said “margins rebounded from better cost of raw materials like wheat and milk.”
“The hefty raw material price increases seen in 2022 and early 2023 reversed through the year and helped RFM margins to recover although inflation dampened consumer demand to an extent,” said Jose Ma. Concepcion, RFM chief executive officer.
Concepcion said RFM continues to invest for future growth as it completes this quarter capital spending of P1.5 billion for its bread line and milk.
“This capex, alongside the regular payment of dividends, were all funded by internally-generated cash and RFM has no bank loans,” he said.
Concepcion also said RFM’s outlook for 2024 is continued growth in topline and single digit growth in income.
“There is greater competition in the ice cream sector but improvement in margins is seen on most business segments with the softer prices of raw materials coming in 2024 compared to early 2023. Our Selecta Milk brand is also seeing sustained growth over the years and we are supporting this with new capex and innovations, like what we are also doing with our new Fiesta carbonara sauce. Our flour business is relatively strong and stable, and continues to support the vertically integrated model of our bread and pasta businesses,” he added.
RFM declared a P250 million cash dividend, equivalent to P 0.07419 per share payable on March 5, 2024 for shareholders as of Feb. 7, 2024. “The P250-million cash dividend is one of the dividend declarations made every year by the company. In 2023 and 2022, the company paid P850M in dividends per year. At the share price of P3.00 as of Dec. 29, 2023, the yield of the total 2023 P850 million dividend is 8.4 percent,” the company said.
