SINGAPORE (Oct 26): Sheng Siong Group, the grocery and fresh food supermarket retailing chain, posted 3Q17 earnings of $19.7 million, 25.7% higher than $15.7 million last year.
This came on the back of higher revenue, refund of prior years’ taxes amounting to $2.2 million and marginally lower operating expenses.
Revenue increased 4.2% to $210.9 million from $202.4 million a year ago. New stores and comparable same store sales contributed 3.9% and 1.7% respectively, but was offset by the Loyang Point and The Verge Stores.
These two stores were not included in computing comparable same store sales as they were not fully operational either during the period under review or in the corresponding prior period.
Revenue at the Woodlands store, which will be closed in November continued to decline, as residents moved out from the affected blocks in the vicinity. Excluding the Woodlands store, comparable same store sales would have grown by 2.7% instead of 1.7%.
Administrative expenses were 0.5% lower at $33.5 million in 3Q17 compared to $33.6 million in 3Q16, due to lower staff cost and rent saved from the closure of the store at The Verge towards the end of June 2017, but was partially offset by higher depreciation charges of $0.2 million.
Other income from government grants and rental for 3Q17 was 8.4% lower at $2.03 million compared to $2.21 million last year.
The group has successfully bid for three new HDB shops in 3Q17 at Woodlands, Punggol and Sengkang areas. These shops should be operational in 4Q17.
Lim Hock Chee, CEO of Sheng Siong, says, “Moving ahead, we will remain focused on our store expansion plans in Singapore, particularly in areas where our potential customers are residing. Concurrently, we will continue to drive growth of our new and existing stores. Besides this, we remain committed to improve cost efficiencies through lowering input costs and operating overheads.”
Shares in Sheng Siong closed at 93 cents flat on Thursday.
