Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc.

Hi, good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us to review Robinson's details and all the results for the first half of 2020. I am Sheena Diwali, the Company's Investor Relations Officer. The speakers for today are Mr. Bina Gokhamoyute, our President and CEO. This may be Mr. Subad, our CFO. Mr. Sandy Paul, the Managing Director of the Supermarket Center. Mr. Christine Torres, the group general manager of the drugstore segment. Mr. Ted Sobono, the general manager of the IYM FEDS. Ms. Carmina Cuisón, the general manager of the business department store and duty. Mr. Jerez Ramalipa, the general manager of Uncle John's. And Ms. Edna Villesa, the general manager of OPA. This presentation will cover the company's financial performance. In the second quarter and first half of this year, an update on our SOAR network and recent company developments. Our Q&A section will follow after the presentation. As a reminder, for the Q&A portion, please use the Q&A function on your Zoom dashboard to type in your questions. Try to limit yourself initially to a maximum of three questions, including follow-ups, so you can comment as many participants as possible. you know, make you log in into the Q&A box for additional questions. And they'll also use the rate plan function if you would like to ask your questions now. With that, I will now turn it over to our president, Ms. Leo. This will be it. Good afternoon. Here are the highlights of our results after the first half of 2023. Consolidated net sales grew by 10.5%, 91 billion. Vended same-store sales growth of 6.3%. Capital expenditures of 1.4 billion. Gross profit increased by 11.4% to 21.5 billion, driven by 20-billion gross margin expansion. Event of 3.9 billion up by 6.8%. Core net earnings rose by 10.6% to 2.4 billion. store network of 2,341 stores, and 2,067 PGP franchise practices. Our store count stood at 2,341 as of end June, composed of 328 supermarkets, 1,018 drugstores, 51 department stores, 230 DIY stores, 416 convenience stores, and 298 specialty stores. We also have 2,067 franchise stores of TV. We opened 67 new stores and closed 36 in the first half. All of the openings came from the drugstores, DIY, and supermarkets. But we also opened some for the specialty segment. Note that most of our store openings are done in the latter half of the year. Meanwhile, GoFart continues to implement our online store network, enabling us to become a true multi-channel retailer. Despite the challenging days in the second quarter of 2022, which was boosted by election-related spending, economic reopening, and revenge consumption, consolidated top sales in the second quarter still grew by 8% to 46.4 billion. Blended SSSG for the quarter came in at 3.6% at normal levels. Meanwhile, net sales in the first half of 2023 grew by 10.5% to 91 billion. driven by double-digit growth from supermarkets, drugstores, and department stores. And the SFFP increased by 6.3% in the first half. In terms of revenue breakdown, the Staples business accounted for 78% of total sales, while discretionary formats overrides the 22% bottoms. This is a more detailed picture of our P&Ls. Net sales increased by 10.5% to 91 billion in the first half. Gross margin in the first half expanded by 20 gigs to 23.7% due to changes in product needs and higher in-debt income. Income rose by 6.8% in the first half to 3.9%, to 3.9 billion driven by positive top-line growth. Net income compared and declined by 34.3%, the first half of 2023 to 1.8 billion due to forex clauses and equalized logit from those days. We know that the interest expense from the BPI shares acquisition financing was offset by the cut dividends we received from BPI in the second quarter. Meanwhile, our quarter makes which exclude interest income from bonds, forex, equity, and earnings of associates interest expense related to the BPI shares, the ICAT dividends, and others. grew by 10.6% to $1.4 billion. Now, Sandy will discuss the supermarket segment.

Thank you, Mr. Mina. The supermarket segment posted net sales of $51.9 billion in the first half of 2023. This is 11% higher year-on-year. The top line was supported by contributions from mutual benefited from higher transaction count. Gross margin eased by 20 bips to 21.4% in the first half, largely due to the increasing share of business from Grossari. Excluding Grossari, gross margin increased by 30 bips to 22.9% due to price adjustments, particularly in the first quarter, and higher sales contribution of imported products. Meanwhile, EBITDA grew by 12.2% to 4.3 billion. Double-digit upline growth translated to improved operating leverage as fixed costs grew in line with inflation. Next speaker is Tim.

Thank you. Net sales of the drugstore segment grew by 15.3% in the first half of this year to 16.1 billion due to strong sales for sales growth and sales contributions from new stores. Vendor-saved store-filled growth of South Florida drug and gross pharmacy growth rose by 8.2% in the first half. Prescription drugs in particular, maintenance medications, and even over-the-counter cough and cold medicines and antihistamines have underpinned the top one. Gross margin expanded by 90% to 21%, which we attribute to improvement of assortment, price adjustments, and increased penetration of our own brands. EBITDA rose by 11% to $1.4 billion due to the robust top-line trends in gross margin expansion. Now I turn it over to Mina for the department store segment. Thanks, Jen. Department store sales grew by 12.6% in the first half of 2023 to $6.8 billion. S&SG normalized with 11.9% in the first half after slipping by 55.9% in the same period last year. Key category drivers this year are shoes, bags, and sports, cosmetics, and men's and ladies' apparel, which were supported by continued out-of-home activities. Gross margin improved to 30 pips, to 30.8% in the first half, mainly due to the increase in outright sales. EBITDA grew by 4.2% in the first half, to $1,397 million. Double-digit SSSG and expansion in gross margin were offset by higher operating expenses, for key items such as rent, manpower, and utilities, which are back to pre-pandemic rates. Passing you on to Daniel. Thank you, Ms. Minda. For DIY, for the first half of 2023, the DIY segment posted SSSG of 1%, and increased a 1.9% decline in net sales to 5.9 billion pesos. Stiff competition was Challenges in one of our top seven categories is dog food. A decline in demand for pandemic items like cookware and kitchen utensils. And the sale of seven Robinson's Builders stores back to our own J.D. partner weighed on the top line. Competition in the dog food category has increased as more players from S&M East to food manufacturers entered the category since the pandemic started. Excluding dog food sales and the impact of the Robinson's Builders exit, DIY net sales will have increased by 4% year-on-year in the first half of 2022. Meanwhile, we are pleased to note that the first fully-converted Harleman Big Dog store has been able to generate double-digit revenue growth since it was invented late last year. Gross margin for the segment improved to 31.8% in the first half from 30.9% in the first half of 2015. Recall that last year, we started to move out aging inventories, which resulted in a lower gross margin for the comparable year. EBITDA decreased by 27.5% to 595 million pesos last year. due to the decline in net sales, while the OPEX items such as strength, front power, and liquidity are accelerating. And I'll turn you over to Suresh.