D&L Industries earnings slip 33%

LISTED D&L Industries, Inc. logged a 33% drop in its third-quarter net income due to lower sales. 

In a regulatory filing, the company said its net income for the July-to-September period dropped to P552 million from P822 million a year ago.

The company’s sales fell 27% to P8.49 billion from P11.58 billion last year.

Meanwhile, D&L Industries logged a 29% drop in its nine-month net income to P1.79 billion from P2.54 billion last year.

The company said sales fell 27% to P24.72 billion compared with P33.91 billion a year ago as the figure has yet to reflect the potential of the new Batangas manufacturing plant, which started operations and issued its first invoice in July.

“The drop in earnings was mainly due to the challenging business environment with the lingering effects of high inflation coupled with the incremental expenses related to the commercial operations of its Batangas plant,” D&L Industries said.

D&L Industries’ Batangas plant caters to the company’s growing businesses in the food and oleochemicals segments. The facility is expected to also boost its capability to produce downstream packaging.   

“While incremental expenses are more apparent at the start of operations of a new plant, we have confidence that this will be a huge benefit to the company, as what we have seen multiple times over the past 60 years,” D&L Industries President and Chief Executive Officer Alvin D. Lao said.

“We believe that there has never been a more exciting time for D&L. Our Batangas plant will allow us to explore opportunities that were previously beyond our existing capabilities. With the new plant, we will open new markets, expand our range of higher value-added products, and deepen innovations that will further push our boundaries,” he added.

Separately, Mr. Lao said in a virtual briefing that D&L Industries and its subsidiary, Chemrez Technologies, Inc., have an opportunity with the government’s plan to increase the mandated biodiesel blend to 3% from the current 2%.

“Recently, there’s been a lot of talk, even from the President himself, saying it’s time to consider a 3% (biodiesel) blend. For us, that’s going to be positive for volumes, for the industry in general. It makes a lot of sense,” Mr. Lao said. 

“Plus, relying less on fossil fuels means lower pollution. It’s also better value-added for our coconut oil,” he added.

Shares of D&L Industries at the local bourse rose one centavo or 0.16% to P6.30 apiece. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave