speaker
Maydine Casiban
Chief Financial Officer

I don't know.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

Good afternoon. Thank you for joining us to review Robinson's Retails and Audit and Results for full year 2025. I'm Angelo Torres, the company's Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer. The speakers for this call are Mr. Stan Lipo, our President and CEO, Ms. Christine Tuerres, our Managing Director of the Big Formats for the food segment, Ms. Mariel Crisostomo, our Group GM for the drugstore segment, Ms. Carmina Quizon, our Group General Manager for Robinson's Department Store, Toys R Us, Sola Academy, and Spasho. Mr. Ted Sugono, our Group General Manager for DIY and Pets. Ms. Selena Chua, our General Manager for Daiso and Super 50. And Ms. Maydine Casiban, our CFO. Our Chairman, Ms. Robina Gokong-Wepe, and Advisor for Corporate Planning, Gina Depanil, and the rest of the RRA executives are also in the quality pay. Flash is the agenda for this afternoon's call. We will provide an overview of our financial performance and share key updates across the organization. As a reminder for the Q&A session, please use the Q&A function on your Zoom dashboards to type in your questions. Please limit initially to a maximum of three questions, including your follow-up questions. And then you may queue back into the Q&A box for additional questions. You may also use the raise hand function if you would like to ask your questions live. So with that, I turn you over to our CEO, Mr. Stanton, to discuss our financial. Good afternoon, everyone. Here are the highlights of RHI's fourth quarter results. Net sales increased by 7.7% to $61.1 billion. The end of the same for the sales group at 3.6%. Gross profit and EBIT group double digit to $15.8 billion. and $3.8 billion respectively. Core net earnings rose to $2.5 billion, up by 9.9%. Net income to parent increased by 5.20% to $2.6 billion. Earnings per share improved by 38.4% to $2.39 per share due to the lower number of outstanding shares from the GFI detailed by BAC last May 30. Here are the highlights of RHI's four-year 2025 results. Net sales up by 5.7% to $210.4 billion. Again, the same-store sales growth registered at 3.8%. Cross-profit and in-grid rose to $51.7 billion and $10.5 billion respectively. Cornet earnings grew by 6% to $6.7 billion. And net income to parent decreased by 44.3%. The 5.7 billion due to the absence of a one-time gain from the DPI hard market order in 2025. Now, a deeper look at our P&L. Fourth quarter and four-year net sales were driven by strong same-store sales growth, new scores, and one-time consolidation of premium by starting December 2025 under the specialty setting. Even increased double digits, to 3.8 billion in fourth quarter and by 7.4% to 10.5 billion for full year for better category mix and vendor support. Net income for parent grew 5.3% in the fourth quarter to 2.6 billion while full year declined to 5.7 billion due to the absence of the greater gains of the DPI ARPA. And core earnings rose 9.9% to 2.5 billion in the fourth quarter and 6% to 6.7 billion for the full year. On revenue trends, all segments achieved positive net sales growth in the fourth quarter and full year 2025 led by drugstores and the specialty stores. Food and drugstore continued to be a large segment, accounting for 79% of net sales and 82% of the big stock in 2025. The discretionary formats, department stores, DIY, and specialty stores contributed the remaining 21% of net sales and 18% of TV cap. In 2025, we opened 94 new stores, mostly under the food and drugstore banners, and added 216 acquired stores from premium bikes, gaining our total from 2,763. Our store count is comprised of 799 food-saving stores, 1,173 drugstores, 51 department stores, 234 DIY stores, and 506 specialty stores. And in addition, we have 2,154 franchise stores of BGP. Passing over to Pind for the food-saving tips.

speaker
Christine Tuerres
Managing Director of the Big Formats for the Food segment

Good afternoon. Food segmented net sales grew 6.2% to 35.6 billion in fourth quarter, supported by 2.9% same-store sales growth and a contribution of new stores. Food year sales increased 4.6% to 125.8 billion. EBITDA rose 7.6% in fourth quarter to 3.5 billion. bringing full-year EBITDA to $11.2 billion, up 6% outpacing revenue growth. This was driven by stronger vendor support and higher penetration of private label and important products. Now I turn you over to Marielle for job scores.

speaker
Mariel Crisostomo
Group General Manager for the Drugstore segment

Net sales for job scores grew double digits in Q4, reaching $10.7 billion, while full-year sales increased by 10.5% to $39.6 billion. Q4 SSSG reached 8.9% on strong demand for top-and-fold remedies, bringing full-year SSSG to 6.4%. Strong pipeline growth, higher penetration of house brands, and price adjustments helped lift EBITDA by 22.3% to $1.1 billion in Q4, and 15% to $3.5 billion for the full year. Here's Mina for the department's questions. Department store SSSG was minus 2.6% in the fourth quarter, impacted by the intense competition. Homebound traffic in business stores was affected by clouds. Net sales rose by 0.4% to 5.9 billion, supported by the opening of the new Pagadian store. Portfolio SSSG was minus 1.5%, while net sales grew by 1.5% to 16.9 billion. Gross profit grew by 1.1% to $1.8 billion in Q4 and 2.4% to $5.3 billion, outpacing offline growth to true-to-hire vendor support. However, EBITDA declined $487 million in Q4 and $1 billion for the full year due to negative SSSG.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

Next. BI1 recorded 5% sales growth in Q4, reaching $3.4 billion. driven by the local GDP growth in Visayas or strong demand for Taipo-related products. For the full year, sales grew 1.8% to 12 billion pesos. Loss margin expanded by 19.1% to 1.3 billion pesos in the fourth quarter, supported by reproduction of new higher-margin items and close the year at 4 billion, up by 4.4%. EBITDA doubled to 534 billion pesos in the fourth quarter. Full-year EBITDA rose 9.7% to 1.5 billion. Bring me over to the second.

speaker
Selena Chua
General Manager for Daiso and Super 50

Specialty segment sales grew 20.1% to 5.5 billion in the fourth quarter with a one-month consolidation of premium bikes, bringing full-year sales to 60.1 billion, up by 9.9%. Excluding premium bikes, sales rose 6.4% with all formats, posting growth. EBITDA expanded 13.8% in the fourth quarter, mainly driven by the higher dealer incentives from premium bikes. However, full-year EBITDA declined to 812 million, primarily due to clearance activities in appliances and mass merchandise.

speaker
Mariel Crisostomo
Group General Manager for the Drugstore segment

Moving on to the working capital, RHI's cash conversion cycle rose to 18 days, driven by higher inventory days at 80 days, and stocks of event products increased to meet strong dividends. On balance sheet, net net goes to 26.6 billion, largely due to the acquisition loan used for the DFI share buyback in May 2025. Despite this, the balance sheet remains sound with net debt to equity at 0.35x. ROA and ROP normalized to 3.3% and 7.1% respectively, following the absence of a one-off gain from the Big Eye product merger in 2024. Organic Apex amounted to $6 billion, up by 17%. Food accounted for 69%, followed by drugstores at 10%. I'll pass you on now to Stan.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

I'd like to update you on some of our minority investments in the OSAGE full-time growth study and BPI. OSAGE net sales jumped 2.2x to $534 million in 2025, supported by its traffic store expansion. OSAGE ended 2025 with 797 stores from over 400 in 2024. GoTimes' cost-over-base increased by 3 million to 8.3 million in 2025. The rise in customer count helped fuel the strong growth in the total transaction value. Rosari's total platform value, or the value of all its business lines, increased by 13% to $887 million due to the continuous growth in coverage. And meanwhile, VPI's net income improved by 7% to 66.6 billion, supported by sustained loan growth, and dividends per share grew by 10% to 4.36 pesos per share. Let me update you on some key corporate developments across the business. Last October 2025, the Institute of Corporate Directors' Award for Global Business Retail two Golden Arrow Awards during the ASEAN Corporate Governance Scorecard Golden Arrow Awards 2025, up from one Golden Arrow the previous year. This award affirms the company's ongoing efforts to strengthen its corporate governance practices and ensuring that our directions are guided by fairness, stewardship, and long-term value for our shared stakeholders. Robinson's meeting was named Time Magazine is the best company in Asia-Pacific in 2026. A ranking of 500 companies based on employee satisfaction, sustainability, transparency, and financial performance. RHI is one of 36 leading companies included in the list. Effective January 1, 2026, we announced several key management changes in RHI's. Maria Pizzottomo has been appointed as the Group General Manager of the 12-Core Business. Mark Tanchonpon has stepped down from his role of VP for Procurement and Administration and will now lead Premium Rights, calling the retirement of Mr. Joe Holt, the previous GM of Premium Rights. Joe will continue to serve as an advisor until June 2026. Proceeding Mark is Angela Andrino, who is now the new VP for Procurement and Administration. Lastly, Marco Codernaud has succeeded Mr. Gabby Tagala, who retired from his post as VP for a few hundred sources. Gabby will continue to serve as advisor for HR and details through 2026. For our full year 2026 guidance, we are targeting net store adhiscence of 130 to 170, still mostly from our food and drugstore segments. Store expansion will be supported by organic capex of around 5.7 billion. And we are also looking at a 2 to 4% same-store sales growth for the year and around 15 to 20 weeks expansion in gross margins. This ends our presentation for the full year 2025 results. We will now open the floor for Q&A. Okay, now let me open the floor for Q&A. We have a question on the question and answer box. So this is from Carissa Magpano. She's asking for the supermarket business. What was the food retail sales for fourth quarter and full year 2025 excluding Uncle John's? The food retail SSG in the fourth quarter and full year 2025 excluding Uncle John's. And how much was it driven by transaction count and basket size? Maybe. Hi, Kirsten. Good afternoon. Thank you for the questions. So food segment excluding Uncle John's. I'll start with 4Q. This is for sales. Did about 34 million pesos. That's up about 6%. SSSG, 3.2%. GP margin of about 23.2%. and EBITDA margin of 9.7. So that's for full year, sorry, for 4Q25, good XUJ. And then for 2025, this is good XUJ for full year, net sales of about 119 million, up by 4.8%, SSSG of 3.6%, DP margin of 22%, sorry, 22.4%, and EBITDA margin of 8.9%. Okay. Thanks for the question, Perry. So we also have another question for J.P. Morgan. He's asking if on premium bikes, what is the exact one month sales EBITDA and net income for premium bikes for the full year of 2026? Hi, Nadine. Good afternoon. Sales of about 500 million pesos. We can only provide a bit. That's about 60 million. But the company is positive at the net income level. For 2026, we're still expecting the company to provide, to generate very good growth, given the demand for motorcycles is very high. Thanks, Gerald. Nadine has a follow-up question. She's asking, what is the breakdown of the target 130 to 107 stores opening given the addition of supermarkets? Thanks, Nadine. Okay, this is the breakdowns about 40 to 50 for the food business, and then half that would be supermarkets. Roadstore, 70 to 80. DIY, around five. specialty 20 to 30, and that includes premium bikes of around 10. Let me ask the floor if you have any questions. You can type your questions in the Q&A box or use the reset function. Okay, Paolo Garcia has a question. He's asking, what's the percent contribution of private label to total sales for supermarket and drugstores? In terms of full year 2024 and 2025. For supermarkets, about 8%, Paolo. And then for drugstores. Okay, blended for drugstores is 10%, so that includes PGP. Excluding PGP, we're about 4%. For Rose Pharmacy and South Star Drug. 1.7%. Thanks, Father, for your question. We also have another question from Dale Zhang. What's the SSSG for Uncle John's in your fourth quarter, and how did it compare on previous quarters? Are we seeing any recovery in terms of SSSG? And if so, where's the recovery coming from? Thanks, Dale. 4Q SSSG for Uncle John's was actually at 3.1%. Sequentially, this is improving from the third quarter and second quarter. We're looking to add maybe on a net basis, maybe $20 to $30. Okay, thank you. We have a question from Clarissa Magbayo. She's asking about the supermarket. For the four-quarter SSG, how much was driven by the transactional chunk and basket size? The transaction, sorry, basket size for four-quarter was about 6%, you know, the transaction negative. Nadine has a similar question for the food segment, which has been answered earlier. So she's also asking, how are the NCCC trends preparing for the different formats? And she's asking on OSAFE, what's the same store sales growth for OSAFE as well as Blackface? Maybe we could answer first the different NCCC trends for different formats. Yeah, for food, a basket size is 6% in fourth quarter and 5% for full year. And then within the food formats, Robinson Supermarket, Marketplace, and PCMark. So basket sizes grow fastly. And yeah, we also have Jonas on the line. Maybe Jonas, you can comment on basket size and same-star sales proposing.

speaker
Stan Lipo
President and CEO

Sure. Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for the question, Nadine. Our SFSD in the fourth quarter was around 16%, 15.9%. And our basket size grew at around 11%. Thank you.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

Thank you, Jonas. Okay. Next question we have is from Denise Joaquin. She was asking, what's the interest expense for the borrowing related to the PPI share acquisition in the buyback of BFI shares for the fourth quarter and full year? And she's also asking what are the balances of these?

speaker
Mariel Crisostomo
Group General Manager for the Drugstore segment

For full year, it's around 1.4 billion. It's relatively important. And the loan balance is around 26 billion. Interest expense for BPI for a full year is... A full year is 1.4, both combined for BPI and being shared by... Yeah. So, and then balance around 25, 26 billion for both.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

Thank you, Ms. Mayon. The next question we have is from John. He's asking, what's the geographic breakdown for the food segment in terms of store openings this year? Yeah. In the last few quarters, we've been opening more stores outside Metro Manila. So that's about 75% to 80% or even higher for some quarters outside Metro Manila. So I think this could possibly be the case going forward. So the next question we have is from Rainier Liu. He's asking, 4Q 2025 results appears to have outperformed expectations despite the narrative of weaker-than-expected demand and big GDP figures. So what's the driver for our HRG report? It's really an increase in basket sizes with inflation steady or stable, job market pretty healthy, and remittances down. continuing to grow. This has been supportive of spending from middle class and broadly to income and even to upper income households. So that's that. And then on the margin side, doing things that we can control, adding private labor, adding or premiumizing the portfolio. So that's helping dive to business. But we are cognizant of the external risks We have another question from Basin. What's the driver for the shop growth in drugstores and should we expect the momentum to be sustained this year?

speaker
Ted Sugono
Group General Manager for DIY and Pets

Price adjustments and higher ventilation of hog plants.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

Okay, thank you. We have another question from the team's housing staff. She's asking, we saw higher gross profit margin, but even though it was flattish for the food segment in the fourth quarter, What's the cost items during this? It's because we're adding stores for the food business. So that's putting some pressure on the OPEC side. But nonetheless, we still expect to get the margins to continue. So not the entire GPM expansion loads to get the margin expansion, but we're still seeing the margins higher. We have a follow-up from asking if what's the driving, the strong SSG for drop storage, should we expect a high single digit SSG to be sustained for just a few?

speaker
Mariel Crisostomo
Group General Manager for the Drugstore segment

It's mentioned earlier, given the growth for the drop store is the price adjustment for 2025, and also the higher penetration cost, and those are anticipated to be still growth for the next six, coming from this conference.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

Thanks, Maria. Rain here is asking is, Can management comment on the timeline of the treasury shares retirement? Thank you, Rainier. So just the background, we got shareholder approval to retire a portion of our treasury shares last September. We're still in the process of getting SEC approval for this one. It's still ongoing. So the process is for the SBC to approve the amendment in are because of the incorporation, because we have to reflect lower authorized capital share. So that's still in the regulators, still with the regulators after approval. Here are some of the values of double checking. What's the basket size group and the fourth quarter for the food segment at CJ? It's around seven and a half to six. And then we have the follow-up on department stores. gross profit margins of your city, Latish, but with the margins right now in the fourth quarter, what are the drivers, cost drivers of this, and any indications of how SSSG is faring so far in the year?

speaker
Mariel Crisostomo
Group General Manager for the Drugstore segment

Drivers are personal, personal cost and utilities. For SSSG, we're still trading below versus last year.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

Thank you, Sonia. Kurita is asking, how is SSSG So far, I think this year, so I think this could be a blended basis. And what will drive the expansion in gross profit margin? Yeah. Hi, Carissa. We're actually doing pretty good in giant FED. We're within that guidance that we provided. In terms of margin expansion, still the same story for us. We're benefiting from scale. And then, of course, we're adding driving data. We're also premiumizing. Although it's a similar question, but this pertains to the food segment, how is it performing so far? So just to repeat, John and Feb were within the 2% to 4% guidance in terms of SSG. Momentum so far is good. Same for you. Different year to DIY, Naveen is asking, so you expect positive SSG in your state for the segment in full year 2026? And what are the drivers of improvements in GPM amid the margin for quarter? Do you see further expansion for 2026? And if so, what would be the key drive? For SSSG, for the IY segment, we think positive SSSG will be sustained for the full year. In terms of jump in GPM and EBITDA, it's because we've added a number of higher margin new items. So we've improved the mix. Plus there's less clearances across our experience. There was a question on Uncle John SSMG on the January and February. It's asking if this is similar to the four-quarter number of 3.1% or even better. Uncle John is... Yes, it's spending better for John and Deb. Thank you. Denise, what can I ask? Any color we can share for OSA's plan this year in terms of strategies for store openings? Yeah. Jonas, do you want to take this one?

speaker
Stan Lipo
President and CEO

Sure, happy to do. I mean, this year is going to be a continued year of further expansion as well. We are planning to open between 300 and 500 stores across Luzon and Besayas. So, yeah, we continue to roll out at the same time. We also continue to consolidate this year across all aspects.

speaker
Maydine Casiban
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Jonas.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

Next question, yeah, this is from Mauro Grigues. The question reads, could you say how much dividends did you receive from DPI for the full year? The high amount, it's about 1.4 billion pesos, so we're positive carrying on DPI. Carissa Malpaio is asking, what is the reason for the margin contraction in the specialty segment for the full year? Hi, Carissa. It's a combination of some clearances in mass merchandise and appliances, plus a The one month contribution of premium bikes, it's actually a bit lower margin compared to the rest. But nonetheless, it's growing very fast in terms of top line. We have a question from Matthew Rojas. The question reads, does RHA have a goal for private label penetration for both the food and drug store sites? For food, we plan to intend to continue increasing the mix from private labels. So right now, we're a lot paid. We intend to bring this further up consistently every year. Same goes for the drugstore business. Thank you. John Limbo has a question. It's asking for the department store segment's average ticket size for the fourth quarter, and how does it compare in the fourth quarter to the 24th?

speaker
Carmina Quizon
Group General Manager for Robinson's Department Store, Toys R Us, Sola Academy, and Spasho

It's about 1,100, and it's 1.3% higher than the first half.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

Thank you, Ms. Meena. Paolo Garcia's question reads, what's the academic management's appetite for development this year? Are there any plans to increase your payout? Hi, Paolo. The policy is 40% look back on our previous year, and nothing from preparing. Next question is from . Given the broader portfolio and capital allocation review in the JG Summit level, are there any plans to do the same for the RHI? And we know what is the management view on capital allocation, dividends, and improving return on equity. Yeah, I think we're doing that regardless if the groups doing that or not. We're constantly watching over our portfolio, adding banners or or grants that we take that make sense to us. We're also continuing to grow through accepting licenses. In terms of profit and allocation, maybe around 30 to 35% of EBITDA would be per capita, 10 to 15 each for dividends, stocks, payments, and days. The balance for principal, repayments, working cap, and M&Es. We have another question from Paolo Garcia. He's asking, what's the private label penetration for the food segment in 2024? It's about 7.2. 7.2, Paolo. Your view has a question for the DIY segment. He's asking, have you seen the bottom for this segment? Yes. Yes, we've seen the bottom for DIY segment. Excuse me. And we think that it's going to be more positive from here on. Ray here also has a question for the specialty segment. He's asking if the company is looking to add more brands in the portfolio and any guidance that we could share in terms of cross-profit margin with premium bikes embedded in the specialty segment. For now, we're, personally, there's an opportunity when we look at it, but for now, there's none. We're working on continuing to grow the business for premium bikes. In terms of GPM, as you know, the two-wheelers gross margin would be lower than the rest of specialty. But what we're happy with this one is underlying demand is pretty good and should be able to continue to post good growth for our group. Next question is from Paolo Garcia. How many stores that OSAVE and Uncle John's have in Visayas? And are there new store openings for both OSAVE and EJ in order to refocus in this main rather than this one? For EJ, Paolo is going to be active.

speaker
Maydine Casiban
Chief Financial Officer

For EJ, this main is going to be refocused for the sixth expansion. The target is about 10 stores.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

10 stores for you, Jake. 10 stores for you, Jake, is IS. You mean Jonas for Lucy?

speaker
Stan Lipo
President and CEO

Yeah, for all sites. We have around 30 stores there at this stage. And while we will grow there this year as well, just given the number of stores that we opened this year, still the vast majority of it will be open again this month.

speaker
Maydine Casiban
Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Jonas.

speaker
Angelo Torres
Corporate Planning and Investor Relations Officer

At this point, there are no more questions coming in, and you can now close this training. If there are no further questions, we will end the call. Thank you, everyone, for your time. We look forward to seeing you in the next training call.

speaker
Stan Lipo
President and CEO

Thank you.

Disclaimer

This conference call transcript was computer generated and almost certianly contains errors. This transcript is provided for information purposes only.EarningsCall, LLC makes no representation about the accuracy of the aforementioned transcript, and you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on the information provided by the transcript.

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