PETALING JAYA: 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd’s net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2018 rose 4.1% to RM16.76 million from RM16.10 million a year ago on the back of higher revenue, gross margin improvement and other operating income.
The group said in a statement that revenue for the quarter rose 1% to RM568.52 million from RM563.12 million a year ago, driven by the growth in new stores, higher average spend per customer and better consumer promotion activity.
Gross profit for the quarter rose 3% year-on-year to RM184.1 million mainly due to the increase in revenue and improvement in gross margin by 0.7% points.
“The improvement in gross margin was attributed to higher gross profit margins across most categories,” it said.
Selling and distribution expenses for the quarter was 4% higher year-on-year mainly due to new store expansion resulting in higher staff costs, rental costs, store depreciation and maintenance expenses.
For the nine months ended Sept 30, 2018, net profit rose 13.3% to RM38.82 million from RM34.25 million a year ago driven by higher profit contribution among most product categories and higher other operating income.
Revenue for the period rose 1.3% to RM1.66 billion from RM1.64 billion a year ago driven by the growth in new stores and consumer promotion activity.
Gross profit improved 4% year-on-year, mainly due to the revenue growth and gross profit margin expansion of 0.9% points while other operating income grew 8.2% year-on-year.
On its future prospects, the group said that trading conditions for the remaining quarter of the year are expected to improve with the anticipated heightened consumer sentiment and it expects to see further improvements by pursuing its core strategy pillars of operations excellence, cost management and commercial innovation.
CEO Colin Harvey said he is confident that the strategy roadmap, which is focused on strengthening key areas of assortment, supply chain, operational excellence, store base and digitally enabling the organisation, will bear fruit in terms of financial performance and overall customer shopping experience.
“I look forward to the challenges ahead in ensuring that 7-Eleven Malaysia remains the customers first choice convenience store,” he said.
