Ginebra expands, to put up 4 plants

Hard liquor-maker Ginebra San Miguel is finalizing plans to put up four new production plants as part of the group-wide expansion program of parent conglomerate San Miguel Corp.

“Ginebra is coming back to be number one,” SMC president Ramon S. Ang told reporters yesterday after the annual stockholders’ meeting of SMC’s controlling shareholder, Top Frontier Investment Holdings Inc.

Ang said Ginebra—which currently has six production sites across the country—was choosing from among eight po- tential sites for the four new distilleries.

In line with the expansion program, Ang said Ginebra would launch new products, including flavored beverages with lower alcohol content.

He added that Ginebra would also boost its logistics capability and ease bottlenecks in existing plants.

SMC is embarking on its biggest expansion program across various units that will cost an estimated P742 billion through 2020.

As traditional food and beverage businesses are folded into a new consumer powerhouse under San Miguel Food & Beverage Co., this unit is expected to complete within the next three years a total of 17 new food production facilities plus five to six new beer breweries.

Ang also told Top Frontier shareholders that SMC was expanding its poultry and piggery facilities.

For the packaging business, SMC is set to put up a new glass packaging plant in Cavite, the third production line in this facility. This will be operational by the first quarter of next year.

Ang said SMC was likewise increasing the capacity of Mindanao Corrugated Fireboard Inc. (Mincor), which produces corrugated carton boxes.