Food and beverage firm RFM Corporation reported that it performed better than the economy last year as its 2009 net income climbed 49 percent to P365 million from P245 million the year before.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Monday, RFM said net sales amounted to P7.97 billion, up 6 percent over P7.55 billion in 2008. Operating income came in at over P613 million in 2009.

RFM president Jose Concepcion III credited the strong performance to better gross margins as major raw materials cost softened towards the second half of the year.

He also credited the company’s lower-cost operating platform with the transfer to more integrated, modern and efficient production facilities for its pasta, beverage and meat products.

Concepcion, who is also the founder of the Go Negosyo advocacy, continued to express optimism and confidence in RFM moving forward.

“RFM sales should continue to grow well ahead of market growth, as the company promotes a more entrepreneurial way of thinking within the organization,” he said.

Concepcion noted that this has led to more relevant and affordable innovations and higher value-for-money food and beverage alternatives to the consumer.

“In particular, we are happy to note that our Fiesta spaghetti continues to strengthen its market leadership based on recent retail audits because of its strong value proposition to Filipino consumers,” Concepcion said.

He said the Fiesta brand is now the company’s second market leader in the RFM Group, after the Selecta brand which has remained the number one ice cream brand in the country, with an even stronger 58 percent market share as of end-2009.