Weak demand cuts Alaska Milk's earnings

MANILA, Philippines-Dairy producer Alaska Milk Corp. reported that its net income for the third quarter of the year dropped by more than half on higher costs. In a report to regulators, Alaska said its bottomline slipped by 70 percent to P50.135 million. Sales for the July to September period improved to P2.388 billion from last year's P2.261 billion while cost of sales and operating expenses jumped to P2.312 billion from P2.033 billion “largely due to higher cost of production inputs as well as heightened advertising and promotional spending to support volume growth." For the nine months ending September, Alaska's earnings slipped about 58 percent to P238.464 million. “Coming from a seasonally strong second quarter, retail consumption of liquid canned milk products softened during the third quarter of the year as consumer spending slowed down on account of rising food and fuel prices," the company said. Alaska added that it has yet to implement a price hike during the year to stave off a further decline in consumer demand for milk products. GMANews.TV