Roche Korea’s profits aggravated last year as sales dropped and expenses increased.

According to Roche Korea, the company posted 343.9 billion won ($278.9 million) in sales last year, down 22.53 percent from 443.9 billion won in 2020. It also registered annual sales of below 400 billion won for the first time in three years since the yearly revenue stood at 375.3 billion in 2018.

In contrast, the company’s selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses surged to 103.7 billion won, up 20.86 percent from the previous year, to exceed 100 billion won for the first time.

SG&A expense for the company has been increasing at an alarming rate over the past five years, with the expense increasing by more than 60 percent from the 64 billion won reported in 2017. The main reason for the increase in expenses was a surge in ordinary development expenses, which increased by 47.64 percent from 2020 to 59.5 billion won last year.

Welfare expenses also rose from 2.6 billion won to 3.9 billion won, rents increased from 1.3 to 1.6 billion won, and depreciation expenses grew from 500 million won to 1.3 billion won over the cited period.

As Roche Korea’s sales fell and expenses rose, its profits worsened.

Last year, Roche Korea reported an operating loss of 69.6 billion won, larger than the previous year's operating loss of 67.6 billion won. The company recorded an operating loss for the third consecutive year.

Net profit also turned to a deficit of 5.5 billion won last year compared to a net profit of 29.7 billion won in 2020.