Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc.

Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us to review Robinson's retail holdings and audited results covering the first nine months of this year. I'm Gina Dipaling, the company's investor relations officer. Joining me in the call are our president and CEO, Ms. Rubina Gokongwete. RCFO, Ms. Maylene Casiban, the Managing Director of the Supermarket Segment, Stan Nicole, the Group General Manager of the Drugstore Segment, Christine Tuarez, the Group General Manager of DIY Pets and Mass Merchandise, Mr. Charles Chuson, Group General Manager of Robinsons Department Store and Toys R Us, Ms. Elina Chua, General Manager of Ministop, Charest Ramalingan, And then General Manager of the Appliance Segment, Jovi Santos, General Manager of Goal Robinsons, Edna Belleza, and ER Rolian, the co-founder and CEO of GoSari will be joining us during the Q&A session. This presentation will cover the financial highlights of our operations for nine months this year. an update of our store network and e-commerce platform, a detailed discussion on our financials, and some recent company developments. A brief question and answer session will follow the formal presentation to be answered by the management team. As a reminder for the Q&A portion, please use the Q&A function on your Zoom dashboard. We will appreciate it if you limit yourself initially to a maximum of three questions. including follow-up, so we can accommodate as many participants as possible. You may queue back in for further questions. If you have any concerns regarding the sound quality of the call, please feel free to send your comments or concerns via the private chat to the host, Eric Isolabo. With that, I'll turn you over to our president, Mr. Yeo.

Good afternoon. Let me summarize RHI's consolidated results for the third quarter of 2021. Consolidated net sales grew by 8.3% to 37.5 billion. Blended same-store sales growth of negative 1.3%. E-commerce sales grew 3.5 times year-on-year, accounting for 4.8% of sales. Gross profit margin was sustained at 22.8%. 60 bps quarter-on-quarter EBITDA margin expansion to 8.7%. Net income attributable to equity holders of the parent company increased by 38.7% to 1 billion. Store portfolio of 2,179 stores and 2,000 PGP franchise branches nationwide. Robinson's retail store network stood at 2,179 stores plus 2,000 franchise stores of PGP as of end September. Our stores serve as the fulfillment centers for Go Robinson's, our e-commerce site, which is the main online hub for our formats. Go Robinson's currently serves a total of eight banners. Sales grew 8.3% to 37.5 billion in the third quarter despite the elevation of NCR to ECQ, the strictest form of community quarantine for two weeks in August. This was driven by the double digit SSSG of the drugstore segment and positive SSSG of the department store, convenience store and specialty store segments. Rose Pharmacy contributed 2.3 billion in the third quarter and 6 billion in the nine months. Consolidated net sales for the first nine months reached 108.9 billion. Supermarket and drugstore accounted for 76.9% of sales. E-commerce grew four times in the nine months versus last year, accounting for 3.5% of total sales, surpassing the upper range of our full-year target with most segments already exceeding their target for the year. Blended SSSG for the quarter was negative 1.3%, an improvement from negative 11.7% in the same period last year and negative 3.4% last quarter of this year. Year-to-date, same-store sales growth was at negative 7.4%. Gross margins slightly dipped to 22.8% in the third quarter, but was up 130 dips overall in the nine months to 22.8% from the higher vendor supports received in the first half of the year. Quarter on quarter EBITDA margins expanded by 60 bps to 8.7% in the third quarter due to better cost controls, improving our EBITDA margins to 8.2% in the nine months from 8% in the first half. Net income attributable to parent increased by 38.7% to 1 billion for the third quarter, driven by the positive SSSG of most segments. lower OPEX as a percent of sales, Forex gains, increase in earnings from associates, and lower accretion on interest expense from lease liabilities. Net income attributable to parent for the nine months reached 2.7 billion, registering a 13.3% year-on-year growth. Now we move to Stanley Koh, the Managing Director of the Supermarket segment.

Thank you, Mr. Bina. Good afternoon, everyone. Net sales of the supermarket segment, including no brand and grocery, amounted to 21.8 billion in the third quarter, bringing nine months net sales to 64 billion. Aside from the high base of 11.5% last year, sales were challenged by the emergence of both offline and online competitors, which include social commerce, community group buying, and even suppliers venturing into direct e-commerce with our own customers. Also contributing are the ongoing renovations of some of our key shop-wise and the marketplace stores. These were partially offset by the surge in sales in August due to the implementation of ECQ relative the increasing cases of the Delta variant. As a result, nine months SSSG was at negative 11.2%. E-commerce sales already amounted to 1.1 billion for the quarter, which is equivalent to a full year e-commerce sales of last year as we added 125 new online stores and accounting for a 5.2% of sales. It reached a high of 5.8% for the month of August and increased further to 6.1% in September, despite the quarantine restrictions being downgraded to MECQ and GCQ. Year-to-date e-commerce sales reached 2.4 billion or 3.7% of sales, already higher than its full-year target of 2%. Gross margin was at 21.6% in the third quarter and 21.2% in nine months. For like-for-like comparison, if we exclude the consolidation of gross salary and no brand, gross margin expanded by 50 bps to 22.3% and 140 bps to 21.8% in nine months, driven by imported goods, improved gondola rentals, higher advertising support generated from digital promotions, and negotiation of higher volume incentives. EBITDA margin rose to 8.9% in the third quarter and 8.5% in nine months. For like-for-like basis, EBITDA margin improved by 50 bps to 9.3% in 3Q and 8.8% in nine months due to the continuous efforts to implement austerity measures, productivity improvements, and lower ECQ-related expenses versus last year, such as incentives and allowances to frontliners. As of September, there are 143 Robinson Supermarket, 71 Robinson's Easy Mart, 34 The Marketplace, 16 Shopwise, and 7 No Brand, bringing our total network to 271 stores. May I now turn you over to Tim for the drugstore segment.