Al Meera Consumer Goods Company Q.P.S.C. (MERS) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, and welcome to the Al Meera Consumer Goods Company. Please note that this call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to hand the call over to our moderator, Phibion. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Sean. Good afternoon, everyone. I would like to welcome you all to the Al Meera Goods Company 3Q and 9 Months of 2025 Financial Results Conference Call. And on this call from the management team, we have the Finance Director, Abdelrahman Muayyad Khalil Aburub; and we have the Manager, Budgeting and Reporting and also the IR Officer, Quennie Gania Trajano; and the Finance Manager, Jaylene Vibar. And as usual, the management team will review the company results first, and this will be followed by a Q&A session. Let me turn over the call to Jaylene to start the call. Over to you, ma'am. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Phibion. Good day, everyone, and welcome to Al Meera's conference call for the third quarter of 2025. Thank you for joining us today. We'll begin with an overview of Al Meera's financial and operational performance for the 9 months period ended September 30, 2025, and we will then open the session for your questions. The following are the financial highlights of the group's performance for the 9-month period ended September 30, 2025. All Meera recorded consolidated sales of QAR 2.2 billion, an increase of 3.2% compared to the same period in 2024. Gross profit amounted to QAR 448.8 million, an increase of 14.5% compared to the same period in 2024. Gross profit margin was at 20.6%. Rental income is at QAR 58.8 million compared to QAR 59.6 million for the same period in 2024. Other income is at QAR 20.3 million compared to QAR 37.8 million for the same period in 2024. Operating expenditures increased by 13.6% to QAR 301.2 million compared to QAR 265.1 million for the same period in 2024. Overall, Al Meera reported a net profit of QAR 105.5 million and earnings per share of QAR 0.51 for the 9-month period ended September 30, 2025. I will now give you an update on the group's operations. Al Meera's retail store expansions have progressed as planned and are now operational. New Mansoura and new Thumama branches were opened in Q2 2025. The corporate and e-commerce sales segments are also being expanded based on market demand. I will now open the floor to question and answers.

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Adnan Muqeem with Al Rayan Investment.

This is Chow from Al Rayan. A couple of questions, please. First, on the like-for-like growth. Could you share the like-for-like for the third quarter? And second question on the gross margin, it has been higher than previous years. So do you see this trend as sustainable?

Our average like-for-like is flat including e-commerce sales, which is around 1% to 1.2%. E-commerce sales have increased by [ 41% ] compared to the same period last year. And gross profit margin is a little higher than last year, and that's mainly due to the new branches opening. So we have increased our [indiscernible] for the new branches there. So it's not going to be continued at the same rate next year because we don't plan to open any new locations next year. So we go back to the previous gross margin total.

And maybe just a question also on the competitive landscape. How do you see the competition more recently? Is it aggressive or how do you see the...

The competition right now is aggressive. The market has been stable per se. So there is no growth in the population, but there are new shops opening and new competitors entering the market soon. And we know that the competitors have opened a few new branches as well. So competition is tough and the market size didn't change much. So this is how it is.

[Operator Instructions] It seems that we have no further questions. I would now like to turn the call back over to Phibion for closing remarks.

Thank you, Sean. If there are no further questions on the line, let's wrap up the call. I would like to thank you all for joining us this afternoon. I would also like to thank the management team for taking the time to update the market and respond to investors' questions. Please do join us again in the future for the fourth quarter. Thank you. Have a good afternoon.

This concludes today's call. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you, everyone. Have a great day.