Driven by the production spike brought by its multi-billion pesos Batangas manufacturing plant, D&L Industries Inc., the country's top producer of specialty food ingredients and oleochemicals, reported a modest 4 percent growth in its first-quarter profits.

D&L reported a recurring income of P618 million from January to March, higher than P594 million in the same period a year ago.

Excluding the effect of increased depreciation and interest costs associated with the new plant, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) grew by 17 percent, reaching P1.25 billion.

"While it is still early days, the Batangas plant has already shown remarkable progress concerning the ramp-up of its operations as well as in surpassing its initial commitments with PEZA. With the current run rate, we may see breakeven sooner than expected," D&L President and CEO Alvin Lao said at a media briefing on Wednesday.

"Meanwhile, we continue to closely watch macro factors which can potentially dampen business sentiment such as the lingering effects of inflation, depreciating peso, and even the excessive heat that may impact consumer spending patterns," Lao added.

Since starting commercial operations, the Batangas plant has consistently ramped up D&L's overall operations.

As of the end of March, the plant's performance significantly improved, nearly reaching breakeven.

According to Lao, D&L drastically reduced its losses from P315 million to just P16 million during the quarter.

Notably, during the period, D&L's High Margin Specialty Products (HMSP) margins increased by 4.5 percentage points due to better customer demand, improvement in mix within the different HMSP categories, and relatively stable commodity prices in the quarter.

The Batangas plant, which focuses on developing and manufacturing higher value-added products, has consistently contributed to the increase in HMSP volume since its commercial operations began.

The company's total HMSP volume grew by 13 percent in the quarter, marking the third consecutive quarter of growth since the new plant kicked off operations.