Despite being ranked among the country’s top billionaires by Forbes, Betty Ang, president of snacks giant Monde Nissin, with an estimated net worth of $695 million, keeps a low profile to a fault.
Her social engagements are few and far between. She rarely obliges to media interviews, but never loses sight of her corporate objectives.
Early on, Forbes said Ang “remains a most elusive, mysterious tycoon” despite her year-by-year inclusion in the list of the Philippines’ richest people. It was also noted that Ang and her closest staff do not respond to emails or phone calls, and that the company website “makes no mention of her or its nine-member board of directors.”
Not pretty much therefore is publicly known about her personal affairs, except that this mother of six children graduated from the Assumption College with a Bachelor of Commerce degree, major in Business Management.
Ang and her father-in-law, Indonesian Hidayat Darmono, founded Monde Nissin in 1979 as Monde Denmark Nissin Biscuit Corp. Her husband, Hoediono Kweefanus, is Darmono’s second son. The Darmono family owned Khong Guan Biscuit Factory in Indonesia.
Under Ang’s stewardship, Monde Nissin grew by leaps and bounds, and 10 years later, the company launched its flagship noodle product Lucky Me! which eventually grew to be a household name in the country.
In 1999, the company was renamed Monde Nissin Corp. Eventually, its product portfolio diversified to include baked goods, dairy products and health foods, with the flagship brands also expanding to cover SkyFlakes, Fita, Nissin, M.Y. San Grahams, Mama Sita and Dutch Mill.
Just like any other corporate journey, Monde Nissin had its roller coaster ride. In 2023, the company incurred a P625-million net loss on account of a significant sales drop by Quorn, an England-based meat substitute offering which it acquired.
Nonetheless, Monde Nissin’s chief executive, Henry Soesanto, remained upbeat on the long-term potentials of “sustainable and clean-label alternative proteins”.
Another major alteration came in the form of the company’s divestment of its 15-percent share in Figaro Coffee with a current value of P721.5 million, representing a net loss of nearly P100 million when it acquired the stake at P820 million in 2023.
“We had hoped investing in Figaro would help us enter this consumer segment, but it has not been successful,” Soesanto said.
Letting go of Figaro was a strategic shift for Monde Nission. It didn’t take long for the firm to announce its entry into the non-traditional packaged coconut milk market with the launch of Goodnom Fresh Gata.
Coconut milk, locally known as gata, is a widely popular culinary ingredient in the country.
Fresh coconut milk is a widely used culinary ingredient in the Philippines, traditionally sourced from wet markets.
Soesanto said processed or packaged gata is a fast-growing segment, with household penetration still low at 9 percent. However, the consumption of coconut milk dishes has increased, rising to 20 percent from 15 percent last year, study showed.
Meanwhile, Ang stayed the course of her corporate leadership, even extending her activities beyond the confines of the boardroom to pursue corporate social responsibility concerns, making substantial contributions to community empowerment.