Century Pacific eyes mid-teen growth in 2025

Listed food manufacturer Century Pacific Food Inc. (CNPF) is looking to sustain the mid-teen growth in its top and bottom lines in 2025, with the company set to spend some P3 billion for the year mainly to continue the growth of its core business.

According to CNPF chief operating officer Gregory Banzon, the company will remain consistent with its mid-teens growth objective in terms of both revenues and net income.

“We’ve been consistent somewhere around 13% on the top and on the bottom line. We try to best that in a consistent level, at least on us as a management team,” he told reporters in a recent interview in Pasay City.

“I think we’re been able to show our ability to deliver. Some years are better than the others, [but] when you average it out, it’s somewhere within the mid-teen level,” he added.

CNPF’s total comprehensive income for the July to September period in 2024 was recorded at P1.656 billion, up from P1.424 billion in the same period in 2023. Net revenues climbed to P19.207 billion from P17.037 billion, while operating expenses increased to P3.174 billion from P2.518 billion.

This brought its nine-month total comprehensive income to P5.273 billion from P4.629 billion, as net revenue rose to P56.948 billion from P50.449 billion, and operating expenses to P8.616 billion from P6.553 billion. Full-year 2024 financial results have yet to be released.

Bazon said the company is looking at a capital expenditure north of P3 billion this year, similar to the spending program for 2024, mostly on capacity expansion and maintenance.

“There’s still carryover of some of that. It’s really more for capacity expansion, particularly just to be able to sustain the growth of our tuna business, ayun pa rin [still that], traditional,” he said.

“In particular where we are seeing a lot of surge in demand is in the coconut product space like Coco Mama, the brand that we launched a few years back or recently, has surprised us in terms of performance,” he added.

CNPF's main business segments are the canned and processed fish segment which produces tuna, sardines, and other fish and seafood-based products; the canned meat segment which produces corned beef, meat loaf, luncheon meat, and other meat-based products; and the dairy and mixes segment comprised of canned milk, powdered milk, and other dairy products as well as coffee mixes and flavor mixes.

It also has a tuna export segment which produces private label canned, pouched, and frozen tuna products for export, and the coconut segment which produces retail-packaged coconut water, organic vegan coconut oil, desiccated coconuts, coconut flour, and coconut milk.

Among its brands are Century Tuna, Argentina, Birch Tree, Blue Bay, Fresca, Ligo, Swift, Wow, Lucky Seven Angel, Coco Mama, unMEAT, Choco Hero, and Goodest. — BM, GMA Integrated News