LISTED food and beverage company RFM Corporation disclosed that preliminary data indicated that RFM’s consumer brands Selecta Fortified Milk saw sustained growth in 2020, expanding at 56% while pasta brands Fiesta and Royal grew 16% and 44%, respectively from year ago levels. White King hotcakes and other bowl mixes also enjoyed a 36% increase as consumers purchased and cooked more in their homes during the lockdown.
“While the 2020 audited financials are still not available, anecdotal evidence points to a better performance in 2020 compared to 2019 in revenues and income. On the one hand, we saw our Selecta Milk, Royal and Fiesta pasta as well as the White King mixes and flour business units take advantage of the pantry loading behavior of the lockdown period. On the other hand, Selecta Ice cream and bread bun revenues were naturally impacted by the pandemic-induced closures of fastfood chains and stores,” Concepcion added.
For 2021, the CEO said that RFM continues to watch trends in consumer sentiment and income as well as the ability of the coming vaccines to restore normalcy in the economy and daily lives of the people. Meantime, Concepcion added that RFM will continue to tighten control over expenses and capex while things remain uncertain.
“We have a strong balance sheet in RFM which supports the continuation of our dividend policy and share buyback programs. While RFM continues to look out for any M&A opportunities to boost shareholder value, the organic growth in milk, ice cream, pasta and mixes will be our growth drivers for 2021,” Concepcion said.
The CEO also said that its Board of Directors approved today a cash dividend of Php 350Million or Php 0.10387 per share payable on March 8, 2021 with record date as of February 8, 2021. The dividend declaration is one of the usual two dividend declarations made every year by the company. RFM dividends per share have grown from 14 centavos in 2017 to 16 centavos
by 2019 and to 21 centavos in 2020. At the end 2020 share price of 4.56 per share, the dividend yield is 4.6%.
