D&L Industries Inc., the country’s leading producer of specialty food ingredients and oleochemicals, is allocating about P1 billion from its 2025 capital expenditures to fund small expansions at its Batangas plant.
D&L president Alvin Lao said in a recent interview the amount is lower than the P1.16 billion spent last year as most of the Batangas facility is already complete.
“Capex peaked in 2022 and it will continue to be lower. There are some projects that were started at the main phase of construction a couple of years ago that have been completed recently, and we still have to release the retention fees,” he said.
Lao said the Batangas plant is expected to keep increasing its operations this year and contribute more to the company’s net income.
It will also play a key role in boosting export revenues. The plant booked a net income of P244 million in 2024, despite early losses due to startup costs.
“In general, the trend should be upwards although in some quarters. It might go down to below P200 million or even P100 million. But it will be seeing higher lows and higher highs in the succeeding quarters, so it will be definitely higher for the full year and its contribution to the bottom line will also be higher,” Lao said.
Meanwhile, D&L expects its export revenues to continue growing as sales increased from P9.1 billion to P12.4 billion and gross profits rose 37 percent in 2024.
Exports accounted for 30 percent of the company’s revenues last year.
Lao said they are not worried about new tariffs that President Trump may impose in the US, because “the US is a very small part of our export business.