Emperador eyes doubling of profit to P11.6B in ’17

EMPERADOR Inc., the country’s biggest liquor company, expects its net income to hit P11.6 billion by 2017—double its earnings in 2013—on the back of an expanded local and overseas presence.

Emperador president Winston Co said after the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting yesterday that Emperador sees its domestic and international business ramping up, following recent acquisitions and the introduction of new products.

The company’s overseas presence, in particular, was seen growing faster after the acquisition of Scotch whiskey-maker Whyte & Mackay Group Ltd. for about £430 million, Co said.

Co said international sales, also including the company’s 50-percent stake in Spanish brandy producer Bodega Las Copas S.L., could account for about 30 percent of profits by 2017.

Emperador also sees the whiskey segment as a potential growth area in the Philippines, he said.

Emperador, which controls about half of the Philippine liquor business, said its domestic market share could grow to about 60 percent in the near term, as it lures more brandy drinkers in rural areas and grows the whiskey business through Whyte & Mackay products. “There is no whiskey [market] in the Philippines yet and we think that this is a space that our company can develop,” Co said.

He said the company was still finalizing which products to bring to the Philippines and it would likely be ready to launch the initial batch of Whyte & Mackay products early next year.

“We believe that the acquisition of the scotch whiskey business will pave the way for us to introduce a world-class portfolio of whiskeys in the Philippines,” he added.

Whyte & Mackay is the fifth largest maker of Scotch whiskey in the world with a history of more than 160 years.

It also holds substantial aged whiskey inventories. The group has a production capacity of 50 million liters of alcohol a year with five distilleries and one bottling plant in Scotland.

Emperador is currently the world’s biggest brandy producer as it sold about 33 million cases last year.

“Emperador believes that its strategic investments in the UK and Spain will secure its dominance in the local liquor industry. This integration will make Emperador a premier global liquor company with a more diversified portfolio of premium offerings,” the company said in a separate statement Monday.