UPDATE 1-Mexico's Femsa sees quarterly net profit fall 40%
(Adds details from earnings report)
MEXICO CITY, April 29 (Reuters) - Mexican conglomerate Femsa said on Thursday its first-quarter net profit fell more than 40% compared with a year ago, when the pandemic had still barely begun to hammer Mexico's economy, although operations were better compared with the prior quarter.
The Monterrey-based Coca-Cola bottler and operator of the extensive Oxxo convenience store chain posted net profit of 4.57 billion pesos ($223.6 million).
Its revenue amounted to 124.5 billion pesos, up almost 2% from the January-to-March period a year ago.
Chief Executive Eduardo Padilla said the results marked an improvement in most operations compared with the fourth quarter of 2020, when the company posted a net loss, but noted that the coronavirus pandemic could continue to take a toll.
"The consumer environment remains challenging, and the health emergency remains serious as vaccination efforts are still incipient in most of our geographies," he said in a statement accompanying results.
Femsa's Coca-Cola bottling division contributed most substantially to overall sales, followed just behind by Oxxo stores, which now span 19,706 sites. Even so, both segments reported lower sales than a year ago.
The only Femsa business to report increased revenue compared with last year was its pharmacies unit, with sales up 16%.
($1= 20.4200 pesos at end-March) (Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Noe Torres; Editing by David Alire Garcia and David Evans)
