SMC to close plastic bottled water business

Diversified conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) is shutting down its plastic bottled water business, a bold move which is part of the company’s continuing shift to a more sustainable business model.

The company will discontinue the plastic bottled water line under the Purewater brand even though the business has churned in good returns. Instead, the brand will be part of SMC’s filtration technology that will be deployed during calamities and no longer as a plastic bottled water business.

“The plastic bottled water business has given us good returns, but we are choosing to forego it in favor of our long-term sustainability goals,” SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said.

SMC’s filtration technology will be deployed during calamities to make safe drinking water available to displaced and affected families in lieu of environmentally unsustainable bottled water, he said.

The move to discontinue its plastic bottled water line is part of the company’s bold sustainability initiative to reduce its environmental footprint and is in line with its strategic investments in various sustainable businesses.

“As we’ve transformed to a diversified business with interests in critical industries like power, infrastructure, public utilities and fuels, we realize we have a much bigger role to play in tackling the most pressing social and environmental issues,” Ang said.

This is the second major initiative SMC has taken as part of its sustainability program after committing to cut its domestic and utility use of water by 50 percent by 2025.

The discontinuation of the plastic bottled water business will not be counted as part of SMC’s overall reduction in water use, Ang said.

In recent months, SMC also announced plans to invest in various sustainable businesses, particularly in the energy sector.

Ang said that for SMC, a critical part of a strategic future are major infrastructure projects like the Bulacan Bulk Water project and its objective to provide safe, potable, and affordable water for a greater number of Filipino families.

“Leaving a business like the plastic water bottle business while at the same time helping build the basic right of all Filipinos to safe and affordable fresh water is a big step to a sustainable future,” he said.

SMC, Southeast Asia’s largest food, beverage, and packaging conglomerate, has in recent years diversified into non-allied but strategic industries that are key to the country’s growth. These include, among others, power generation through SMC Global Power; oil refining and marketing, through Petron Corp.; and infrastructure, through SMC Holdings Corp., which holds the concession to many of the country’s major toll roads and airport and mass transit system projects.