Emperador Inc., the liquor unit of tycoon Andrew Tan, signed a deal to bring its flagship brand to the United States as a part of a plan to make it a global name by 2020.
Emperador president Winston Co said during the annual stockholders’ meeting the company signed the deal to bring Emperador brand to the US before the end the year.
Co said Emperador was also finalizing agreements with 10 central European countries.
“By 2020, Emperador will be a global brand alongside our other brands Fundador and Whyte and Mackay,” Co said.
Co said said the company would initially target US cities with high concentration of Filipinos.
Co said the company’s strategy was also to expand the markets for Whyte and Mackay, which was already very strong in Europe and Fundador, which was known in Spain and the Philippines.
He said Emperador was also looking at Asia, particularly China as a huge market for Whyte and Mackay’s Scotch whisky brands including Jura and The Dalmore.
Dalmore posted a 12-percent volume growth in China in 2015.
Emperador’s international business accounted for 38 percent of the company’s revenues while domestic contributed 62 percent of the total last year.
Emperador, with the recent acquisition of Fundador, was aiming to further increase the share of the international business over the next few years.
Meanwhile, Emperador remains bullish about the domestic liquor market as the local economy continues to improve and the expect growth in the middle class.
“The ‘premiunization’ will happen in the next few years and when you look at liquor business only 2 percent in terms of volume are imported and 98 percent are domestic products. So we felt there is an opportunity to bridge the price gap,” Co said.
“Because for instance, a Fundador would cost more than P300 per bottle while for domestic brands, like Emperador which is considered a premium product, it sells at about P85 to P90 per bottle. So there is wide gap,” he said.
Emperador’s net income stood flat at P1.4 billion in the first quarter while sales rose to nearly P9 billion from P8.89 billion in the same quarter last year.
Share price of Emperador closed lower by P0.20 to P7.40 on Monday.