Uni-President Enterprises Corp (統一企業), the nation’s largest food conglomerate, yesterday posted its highest monthly sales total for this year, although the figure was still lower than that of August last year.
The Tainan-based company saw sales reach NT$4.47 billion (US$136 million) last month, up 6 percent from NT$4.2 billion in July, but down 1.75 percent from NT$4.55 billion in the same month a year earlier, according to a filing sent to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The company attributed the higher sales last month to strong consumer purchases of instant noodles, cold beverages and other foodstuffs in preparation for the Chungyuan Festival (中元節), also known as the Ghost Festival, which falls on the 15th day of the seventh lunar month, when people prepare food to honor the dead with the traditional pudu (普渡) ceremonies.
For the first eight months of the year, Uni-President’s revenue totaled NT$30.18 billion, down 13.6 percent from NT$34.92 billion in the same period of last year, the company’s tallies show.
Uni-President yesterday received a “twA+” long-term corporate credit rating and “twA-1” short-term rating at Taiwan Ratings Corp (中華信評), the local arm of Standard & Poor’s Ratings Service said in a separate statement.
Outlook on the ratings is “stable,” the statement said.
Taiwan Ratings said the ratings reflected Uni-President’s leading position in the local food-and-beverage and convenience-store markets, its strong showing in China’s food-and-beverage market, as well as its effective business diversity.
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