Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc.

Thank you for joining our first quarter earnings call. I am Gina Bifani, the company's investor relations officer. The participants from our company for this call are the following. Our CEO and President, Mr. Rina Gopamriti. Our COO, Stanley Kopp. Our CFO, Ms. Nayin Kasimba. The Group General Manager of Robinson Supermarket, Ms. Christine Duarez. The Group General Manager of our Drugstore Business, Ms. Joanne Arceo. The Group General Manager of Robinson's Department Store and Toys, Ms. Elina Chua. The Deputy General Manager of True Value, Don Don Gao. The Group General Manager of our Appliance Test Dispatchment, Mr. Joe Bucercos. the general manager of Uncle John's, Ms. Donna Lott-Yonzo, and the CEO of HB Retail Holdings, which operates OC, Mr. Jonas Nguyen. This presentation will cover the following, as you can see on the slide, the company's financial performance, for the first quarter of this year versus last year, an update on our store network, and recent company developments. The P&A section will follow up to the presentation. As a reminder, for the P&A section, please use the P&A function on your Zoom dashboard to type in your questions. We would appreciate if you will limit your questions into three, and then you can fill back in with your additional questions. With this, I will turn you over to our Telco Sandy. I'll see you over.

Thank you, Gina. Good afternoon, everyone. Here are the highlights of our results for the first three months of 2024. Consolidated net sales grew by 2.9% to 45.9 billion. Net sales growth of 0.9%. Gross margin increased by 3.6% to 10.9 billion. EBIT of 1.9 billion up by 3.4%. Cornet earnings increased by 8.5% to 1.2 billion. And net income to parent came in at 5.1 billion. This is 9.5 times higher versus last year, mainly due to a one-time gain from the DPI-Wallace Bank merger, which closed earlier this year. Earnings per share likewise increased substantially to 3.49%. 9.6 times higher. Consolidated net sales came in at 45.9 billion, up by 3.9%. Same-store sales growth has normalized after coming from an unusually high base in the past two years. In addition, a number of our discretionary formats were temporarily closed for two days during the whole week's holidays, which took place in March, affecting sales for the quarter. Our drugstores, and food segments posted positive growth for the partner as they continued to benefit from sustained demand. This is a more detailed picture of our P&L in Q1. Gross margin expanded by 20 bps to 23.8% on assortment changes and continued vendor support. Even growth by 3.4% to 1.9 billion driven by higher sales and gross margin expansion. Net income to parent increase from 537 million last year to 5.1 billion this year, largely due to the one-time gain from the BPI and Robinson's plant merger, and core earnings, which excludes the one-time gain from the merger, forex, interest income from bonds, equity earnings from associates, interest expense and dividends related to the BPI share, and other came in at 1.2 billion, up by 8.5%. In terms of segment contribution, the stable businesses, namely food and drug stores, accounted for 80% of our total sales and 84% of total EBITDA, respectively. Meanwhile, our discretionary formats, namely the department stores, DIY stores, and specialty stores, comprise 20% of the total sales and 16% of total EBITDA, respectively. Our store count in the Philippines stood at 2,399 as of March 2024, comprising 756 food segment stores, 1,072 drug stores, 50 department stores, 224 DIY stores, and 297 specialty stores. We also have 2,120 franchise stores of TGP. For year-to-date March, we opened six stores under the supermarket and drugstore banners. We usually accelerate our store openings in the second half of the year, all of which come from our food and drugstores. Turning you over to Pin Pueres for the food segment.

Thanks, Tan. Net sales for the food segment increased by 3.4% in the first quarter of 2024 to 28.1 billion, with same-store sales growth coming in at 1.7%. Our top line has normalized after a strong performance last year, which saw net sales growing by 18 and same-store sales growth up by almost double digits. We saw a 30-dip improvement in gross profit margins in first quarter of this year to 22.8%, due to increased penetration of important products, sustained demand for Uncle John's ready-to-eat categories, which are high-margin and continued vendor support. Kibita was slightly higher at 2.3 billion as the growth in gross profit was offset by expansion-related costs. Now I turn you over to John for the drugstore segment. For drugstore, drugstore net sales rose by 10.4% in Q1 to 8.8 billion on strong same-store sales growth and fresh contributions from new stores. Blended SSSG of South Star Drug and the Rose Pharmacy Accelerated to 6.5%, driven by sustained demand for prescription drugs and over-the-counter medicines. Gross margin expanded by 10 bps to 20.9% due to increased penetration of house brands. Meanwhile, addictive grew by 8.9% to 752 million, slightly lower than offline growth due to store expansion and incremental VC costs. Turning me over to Selena.