Monde Nissin net income rises 8.7% as sales climb

MONDE NISSIN Corp. posted a P1.96-billion attributable net income in the second quarter, 8.7% higher than last year, after booking higher sales at a time when operational costs went up.

“We have sought to address global inflationary pressures by continuing to improve our efficiency and reduce our operational costs,” Monde Nissin Chief Executive Officer and Executive Vice-President Henry Soesanto said in a press release on Wednesday.

The company recorded P18.87 billion in net sales in the April-June period, higher by 13.1% than the previous year.

International revenues also grew, by 7.4% to P924 million during the quarter, which the company attributed to favorable foreign exchange rates.

For the first half, net income at ownership declined by 4.1% year on year to P4.08 billion, which the company attributed to slower growth in the first quarter.

“The growth is broad-based, all of our categories grew double digits in value terms,” Monde Nissin’s Chief Financial Officer Jesse C. Teo said during the company’s virtual media briefing on Wednesday.

Its first-half sales grew by 10.1% to P37.17 billion driven by volume increases in the Asia-Pacific branded food and beverage (APAC BFB) domestic business.

APAC BFB revenues grew by 18.1% year on year, driven by an 18.9% growth in the domestic business.

“Biscuits continues to recover with volume growth over pre-pandemic levels,” the company said.

However, Monde Nissin’s meat alternatives declined by 1.8% in the first half of the year.

For the second half, Mr. Teo expects a “dampening effect” after the company last month faced issues with its instant noodle products in the European Union (EU).

“Domestically, because of the noise that was caused by the incident, July had a soft month for instant noodles and it declined by 15% versus a year ago,” he said.

The company’s domestic noodle sales declined by 15% in July from the previous year, making overall domestic sales for the month flat.

Mr. Soesanto said: “While we had a disruption in July with EU ethylene oxide news, we will continue to work to recover the lost momentum.”

“Additionally, we are cautiously optimistic that the recent pullback in commodity prices will benefit our margin in the long term,” he added.

On Wednesday, shares of Monde Nissin inched up by 0.50% or P0.08 to P16.16 apiece. — Justine Irish D. Tabile