SUGAR miller Roxas Holdings Inc. on Thursday said it had a steep decline in its income during its fiscal year ending September on plant repairs that prompted its own sugarcane planters to go to other mills.
The company said it only had a profit of P18.55 million for the period, down sharply from P611.93 million for the same period last year.
Core income of one of the country’s top sugar producers was also down to P169 million from P645 million the previous year.
Pedro Roxas, the company chairman and CEO, said the company’s factory problems grossly affected the country’s sugarcane supply.
“We also had to spend roughly P700 million for new equipment and repairs to address the problems at the plant,” Roxas said.
The company experienced “a double whammy” as it tried to plug the concerns in its plants while trying to combat the combined impact of declining sugar prices and escalating production costs in the global sugar market. The Philippines recorded 5-percent drop in overall cane supply in the past year. Batangas production fell by 10 percent and Negros Occidental by 5 percent, Roxas Holdings said without citing any money figures.
The group’s ethanol business cushioned the impact of sugar with Roxol Bioenergy Corp. and San Carlos Bioenergy Corp. Inc. posting a net income after tax of P215 million and P122 million, respectively, the company said.
In May the company acquired San Carlos which recently completed its expansion project that increased the plant’s capacity to 38 million liters per year from 32 million liters.
To abate the impact of unpredictable sugar prices and declining cane supply, alongside the factory problems and the ongoing repairs, the company said it will tighten measures to prop up its sugar business and will maintain its focus on ethanol.
He said that with the new company leadership following the appointment of sugar industry veteran Hubert Tubio at the helm as its new president and chief executive, which will take effect later this month, the company is confident of gaining lost ground during the year.
Tubio was the former chairman of Bioeq Energy Holdings Inc., a bioenergy company; and a member of the board of Negros College Inc.
He also served as president and COO of Victorias Milling Co. Inc. from 2009 to 2014. During his term, he set record-production volumes in both raw and refinery operations since the milling’s founding in 1919 and recorded the highest yield and sugar recovery in the Philippines, while capturing 25.7 percent of the sugarcane supply in Negros Occidental in 2012 and 2013.