San Miguel to put up more beer breweries in historic expansion

Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. is putting up additional production lines as part of an expansion program for its food and beverage business to meet domestic demand.

Vice chairman and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said Thursday the company is embarking on its “largest capacity building program undertaken in its history” to meet the growing consumer base.

“We will be putting up five to six breweries in the Philippines. The investment is about $250 million per brewery,” Ang told reporters on the sidelines of SMC’s annual stockholders’ meeting in Pasig City.

The production lines will be built in Quezon, or Bicol, as well as in Cagayan de Oro, and Zamboanga with an average capacity of two million hectoliters each.

The company is also increasing the capacity of its one million-hectoliter bottling plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna by another one million hectoliters.

“With that, we will be able to bring down the logistics cost ... We think the brewery profitability will keep on growing double-digit every year by at least 20 percent,” Ang said.

San Miguel is also putting up at least six feed mills with an average capacity of one million tons per year.

The feed mills will be constructed in Mariveles, Bataan; Mabini, Batangas; Cagayan de Oro; San Ildefonso, Bulacan; Mandaue, Cebu; and Iloilo.

“We are also expanding processed meats ... Ang capacity is about 500 tons a day, 150,000 tons per year ‘yung tinatayong planta,” Ang said.

The expansion program is part of the plan to complete 18 new facilities in the next three years.

The company’s P742-billion capital spending initiative, which started in 2017, is to be completed by 2019 or 2020, Ang said.

San Miguel posted a recurring net income of P54.7 billion in 2017, up 11 percent from P49.4 billion in 2016, on the back of strong contributions from the petroleum and traditional businesses. —VDS, GMA News