D&L Industries Inc., a major Philippine company that makes ingredients for food and other products, announced on March 25, 2026, that it earned more money in 2025 even though one of its main ingredients became very expensive.

What Happened?

Think of D&L Industries like a big kitchen that makes special ingredients for other companies. These other companies then use D&L’s ingredients to make things like snacks, shampoos, and plastic products that we buy in stores.

In 2025, D&L made a profit (money left after paying all costs) of 2.6 billion pesos. This means for every share of their company stock, they earned 0.363 pesos. This was 10.6% more than what they made in 2024.

To understand what a “share” means: imagine the company is like a pizza cut into 7.14 billion slices. Each slice is called a share, and people can own these slices. As of December 31, 2025, there were exactly 7,142,857,990 shares of D&L stock.

The Coconut Oil Problem

Here’s the tricky part: coconut oil is one of the most important ingredients D&L uses to make its products. In 2025, coconut oil prices went super high—they almost tripled (became three times more expensive) compared to just two years earlier. The average price jumped 62% compared to 2024, reaching nearly $3,000 per metric ton.

When ingredients cost more, it’s harder to make money, like trying to make money selling lemonade when lemons suddenly cost three times more. But D&L still managed to grow its profits because more customers kept buying their products.

Why Did They Still Make More Money?

According to Alvin Lao, who is the President and CEO (the main boss) of D&L, the company succeeded because:

• They kept creating new and better products through research and development (like scientists in a lab making new recipes)
• They make customized solutions—meaning they create special products exactly how each customer wants them
• They have strong relationships with their customers built over many years

Even with expensive coconut oil, D&L sold 8% more products in 2025 compared to 2024. That’s like selling 108 bottles of juice instead of 100.

Things Are Getting Better

The good news is that coconut oil prices started coming down toward the end of 2025. In the last three months of 2025 (called the fourth quarter or 4Q25), D&L’s profit margins improved. “Margins” means how much profit they keep from each sale—like keeping 2 pesos from every 10 pesos of sales instead of just 1 peso.

Specifically, their gross profit margin (money made before paying other expenses) improved by 2.1 percentage points from the previous three months. Coconut oil prices have dropped 20% from their highest point, though they’re still more expensive than usual.

Debt and Spending

D&L spent less money building new factories in 2025—less than 1 billion pesos—because they just finished building a big plant in Batangas. They don’t have other major construction projects planned soon.

The company also reduced its net debt (money it owes after subtracting cash it has) by 3 billion pesos in the last quarter of 2025. As of December 31, 2025, their total debt was 25.3 billion pesos.

Think of debt like borrowing money to buy a bike so you can start a delivery business. D&L borrowed money to build factories, and now they’re paying it back. Their average interest rate (the cost of borrowing) improved slightly to 6.01% from 6.29% at the end of 2024.

The Lao Family Keeps Buying Stock

The Lao family, which owns D&L through a company called Jadel Holdings, has been buying more shares of D&L. Since the pandemic, they’ve increased their ownership by about 5%. In 2024, they bought 20 million shares, and in early 2025, they bought 116 million more shares.

Alvin Lao mentioned that at current prices, investors can earn about 6.1% in dividends. Dividends are like getting paid just for owning shares—the company shares some of its profits with shareholders.

How Each Business Division Performed

Food Ingredients

This division had a tough year because of high coconut oil prices. Their earnings dropped 61% compared to 2024. However, their high-margin specialty products (fancy, special ingredients that make more profit) grew 13% in volume.

The company usually passes higher ingredient costs to customers, but there’s typically a 30-45 day delay before they can charge more. As coconut oil prices normalize and they adjust prices, this division should recover.

Chemrez

This division makes chemicals and biodiesel. It had an excellent year, with volumes up 24% and profits up 96% compared to 2024. Part of the growth came from the government increasing the required biodiesel blend in diesel fuel from 2% to 3% starting October 1, 2024.

There’s a proposed law being discussed in Congress that would let the President temporarily suspend this biodiesel requirement for up to one year when fuel prices move abnormally. However, D&L doesn’t expect this to significantly hurt their business based on current market conditions.

Specialty Plastics

This division continued growing strongly with profits up 9% compared to 2024 (and they grew 32% the year before that). Their profit margins reached record highs in 2025 thanks to new products developed through years of research.

Consumer Products ODM

ODM means “Original Design Manufacturer”—they make products that other companies sell under their own brands. This division recovered strongly with earnings up 80% compared to 2024. Their exports (selling to other countries) grew significantly and now represent 16% of sales, up from almost nothing six years ago.

Future Outlook

According to Alvin Lao, 2026 brings uncertainties, especially from the war in the Middle East, which could affect oil prices and supply chains. However, he believes these challenging times also create opportunities for D&L to prove itself as a reliable supplier.

The new Batangas plant gives D&L much more capacity to make products and serve bigger international customers. They’re actively looking for new customers by participating in international trade shows.

About D&L Industries

D&L Industries was established in 1963 and has been listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange since December 2012. The company specializes in making customized ingredients and materials for food, chemicals, plastics, and consumer products. They have the largest market share in most industries they serve and work with the Philippines’ leading consumer and manufacturing companies.

This press release was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) under Form 17-C on March 25, 2026. D&L’s SEC identification number is 44852.

This article is based on the company’s official press release and disclosures filed with the Philippine Stock Exchange’s Electronic Disclosure Generation Technology (PSE EDGE) system. For the complete and official version of the announcement, readers may visit the PSE EDGE website and search for the company’s filing directly.