Century Pacific Food (CNPF), the Philippines' largest tuna canner,  saw consolidated revenues grow by 22% year-on-year in 2017, hitting record high sales of PHP 34.50 billion ($661m).

However, profits dipped of 4% in 2017, to PHP 2.55bn, due primarily to higher tuna raw material prices (see below, from the relative to their cyclical lows the year before.

Skipjack tuna prices in Bangkok, Thailand. Credit: Undercurrent News prices portal

The company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization remained largely unchanged year-on-year, at just over PHP 3.95bn, for the latest twelve-month period.

“Amidst a more challenging input cost environment, our businesses faired relatively well. During this time, we’ve adopted a more conservative approach towards price increases in the face of inflationary pressures. This has helped further solidify our market shares, increase sales volume, and puts us in a good position to benefit once raw material prices soften,” said the firm's executive chairman, Christopher Po.

The company saw robust top line growth across all business units throughout 2017, it said. 

For the full-year, its branded business registered an 18% increase in sales to PHP 24.90bn, with all three units -- seafood, meat and milk -- posting double-digit revenue growth.

“We are happy to note the sustained demand for our products across all segments. Our tuna original equipment manufacturer business performed well in 2017 owing primarily to the recovery of the global tuna market. For our branded segments, we saw consistent revenue expansion in core units and an increased presence in emerging categories,” said Po.

In terms of profitability, the company faced some challenges with gross profit down slightly to PHP8.52bn, while operating income was down 5% y-o-y to PHP3.43bn.

“Though headwinds coming from cost pressures are likely to remain into the early part of 2018, we have already seen softening in the prices of raw materials and look forward to an improvement in margins beginning middle of this year. Meanwhile, we are focused on keeping expenses low and ensuring that our buoyant top-line growth continues,” said Po.

Po pointed out the company's overall resilience during this period is attributable to a diversified product base, robust sales, efficient operations, and a management team that is committed to delivering long-term earnings growth.

"All these have allowed us to achieve a compounded annual net income growth rate of 17% since 2014, higher than our existing targets of 10 to 15%," Po said.