San Miguel Pure Foods Company Inc., the food manufacturing unit of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., said it plans to open a new manufacturing facility for ready-to-eat products in Santa Rosa, Laguna by the first quarter of 2019.
SMPFC said in a statement the facility, spanning 20,000 square meters, would address consumer demand for convenience and capture a larger chunk of the fast-growing segment.
Once operational, it will produce fully cooked viands and heat-and-serve meals to serve growing consumer demand for convenient, nutritious meals differentiated by home-cooked taste, rich quality, and the highest levels of food safety, it said.
The plant and commissary will also cater to foodservice clients’ operational needs for high-quality, healthy and easy-to-prepare meals. It will also yield products for export in the ready-to-eat format, SMPFC said.
The project was recently granted incentives by the Trade Department’s Board of Investments.
SMPFC said the new facility was also supportive of the DTI’s Inclusive Business program, through direct employment of locals and partnership programs with local businesses, farmers and animal growers, resulting in an integrated supply chain.
San Miguel earlier announced plans to consolidate its beer and liquor business under SMPFC via a share swap. The move to consolidate all food and beverage businesses under SMPFC would make the company more attractive to investors, it said.
SMPFC also plans to conduct a share sale by the second quarter of 2018 to meet the 15-percent minimum requirement for listed firms as the consolidation would increase San Miguel’s share in SMPFC to 95.5 percent.
The planned share sale is expected to reach $1.5 billion, which could be the largest equity deal in the Philippines.
Combined revenues of the consolidated units for the period in review –San Miguel Brewery, Ginebra San Miguel and San Miguel Purefoods –amounted to P180 billion in the first nine months of 2017, up 11 percent from a year ago. It also represented 30 percent of SMC’s total revenues.
Operating income of the new food and beverage company rose 17 percent to P29.1 billion while earnings grew 21 percent to P19.55 billion.