D&L president Alvin Lao (Photo courtesy of D&L Industries, Inc.)
MANILA – Food ingredients and plastics manufacturer D&L Industries is optimistic about returning to pre-pandemic profitability level this year despite the threat of more transmissible Delta variant, banking mainly on the higher daily vaccination rate in the country.
In a virtual press briefing Wednesday, D&L president Alvin Lao said daily coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine administration has already reached 500,000 to 700,000, and more vaccines are arriving every month.
“Assuming that the income for the first half holds steady for the remainder of the year, we are set to reach our 2019 income level. Moreover, we see emerging positive catalysts in the horizon such as the onset of the Christmas season, an additional spending boost coming from the 2022 election campaigns, and progress on the country’s vaccination efforts that can provide upside surprises,” he said.
Lao hoped that the impact of the reimposition of the strictest lockdown measure against Delta variant of Covid-19 this month would be minimal, based on what happened in the second quarter when the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) were implemented.
The company reported its earnings grew by a whopping 134 percent in the second quarter of the year to PHP671 million. This brings earnings for the first half to PHP1.39 billion, up by 74 percent year-on-year.
Lao also cited the reported high daily number of Delta cases in neighboring countries in Southeast Asia.
“So far, we haven’t seen in the Philippines daily counts higher than what we have seen before. Knock on wood. Hopefully, this ECQ really works. If it does work, then I think we have a lot of confidence to say our third quarter should be around the same level as the first and second quarters,” he added.
Lao said if this trend continues, the company may be hitting in 2022 an all-time high profit booked in 2018 of PHP3.187 billion.
He said the vaccination rate among its employees is now more than 80 percent.
“We will continue to encourage people to get vaccinated and the emphasis is keeping fellow workers safe and also keeping the family safe,” he said. (PNA)
