By Jenniffer B. Austria

Universal Robina Corp., the food manufacturing arm of conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc., reported a 94 percent drop in its consolidated net income for fiscal year ended October 2008 due to the absence of a non-recurring gain.

Universal Robina said in a disclosure to the stock exchange that net income reached P341 million against P5.5 billion reported in the same period last year. The 2007 net income included P2.85 billion from the company?s sale of shares in affiliate Robinsons Land Corp.

Consolidated net sales and services in 2008 grew 20.5 percent to P45.4 billion from P37.7 billion in 2007.

The largest contributor to the group?s sales revenues was the branded consumer food segment, which reached P34.7 billion, up 22.5 percent from a year-ago level of P28.3 billion.

Snack foods, which include candies, chocolates, biscuits and bakery products, posted a 22.7 percent growth, while beverages registered an 8.4 percent increase, primarily driven by coffee products.

Net sales in international operations rose 42.7 percent to $215 million from $150 million in 2007 as all countries posted growth in sales. URC Thailand registered $97 million in sales while URC Vietnam posted sales of $31 million.

Meanwhile, sales of the agro-industrial group totaled P5.5 billion, down 1.4 percent, due to higher feed prices and the influx of cheap imported meat. Sales of the commodity food segment grew 38.3 percent to P5.1 billion from P3.7 billion.

The company said it would implement belt-tightening measures as the current global market crisis was making access to credit more expensive.