Wilcon Depot, Inc., the country’s leading home improvement and finishing construction supplies retailer, today reported net income of P1.818 billion for the first half of 2023, down by 2.1% or P38 million yearon year as total sales growth slowed down while operating expenses growth accelerated, partly offset by gross profit margin expansion and increase in operations-related other income.

Wilcon’s President and CEO, Ms. Lorraine Belo-Cincochan, said that, “we had a slower growth in the second quarter mainly due to the decline in foot traffic in our old stores. We have a high base since there was pent up demand for the same period last year as we just came out of the Omicron surge plus there was a slowdown in private construction especially in April with its consecutive long weekends.

Historically, months with longer holiday stretches were periods with relatively lower sales since construction projects are usually also paused to save on labor cost or homeowners go on holiday themselves. While our sales still grew modestly in the 2nd quarter, this was not enough to cover the
increases in our fixed costs, which comprises the bulk of our opex.” She added that despite a seeming softening of demand this year in the home improvement sector, Wilcon remains committed to its expansion plan. “We are still pursuing our expansion plans at our current pace. We want to be ready and conveniently within reach by our customers when demand picks up. We have opened four new stores so far and tomorrow we are opening another depot. We still have seven ongoing construction projects, not including several that are in the planning or permitting stage, which are set to be opened next year,” Ms. Belo-Cincochan further said.