MANILA -- Wilcon Depot on Thursday said its net income went down 2.1 percent to P1.82 billion for the first half of 2023.

The home improvement retailer also said net income declined by 14.9 percent to P856 million from April to June.

In a statement, president and CEO Lorraine Belo-Cincochan blamed the decrease in net income on lower foot traffic in some of their stores.

"We have a high base since there was pent-up demand for the same period last year as we just came out of the Omicron surge, plus there was a slowdown in private construction especially in April with its consecutive long weekends," she said.

"Historically, months with longer holiday stretches were periods with relatively lower sales since construction projects are usually also paused to save on labor cost or homeowners go on holiday themselves," he explained.

Net sales, however, grew to P17.152 billion in the first half of 2023, up 7.6 percent year-on-year.

Cincochan said despite the lower net income, the company is still pursuing its expansion plans.

The company said last month that it plans to open 10 more stores this year.

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"We are still pursuing our expansion plans at our current pace. We want to be ready and conveniently within reach by our customers when demand picks up," the executive said.

Wilcon said four new stores were opened from January to June while 2 were closed, which brings their total store count to 85.

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