Del Monte Pacific Ltd., the food group listed in both the Philippines and Singapore stock exchanges, saw third-quarter net profit fall 62 percent year-on-year to $9.8 million due to lower operating results and increased interest expense from higher bank loans to refinance the redemption of the $300 million preferred shares.
Sales in its third quarter ended January 31 was up 3 percent to $681 million on a 6 percent growth in US sales to $495.7 million, and 19 percent growth in international sales to $80.8 million.
Del Monte said the Philippine market delivered sales of $109.8 million, 6 percent higher in peso terms but 6 percent lower in US dollar terms due to the peso depreciation. Higher sales of beverage, culinary and innovation categories offset the decline in packaged tropical fruit.
The food company’s international markets, composed of fresh produce and packaged goods, increased sales by 19 percent to $80.8 million, driven by strong performance of packaged pineapple, mixed fruit and juice drink exports to USA and Europe. Higher volume and better pricing led to the robust sales growth of 53 percent for packaged products. But sales of fresh pineapple were down 8 percent on reduced volume to China due to extended lockdowns and inflation.
Even with the fall in third-quarter income, net profit in the nine months spanning May 2022 and January 2023 was still up 3 percent to $82.7 million on account of higher net profit of U.S. subsidiary Del Monte Food Inc. which included refinancing savings.
Sales in the nine-month period was up 4 percent year-on-year to $1.8 billion.
