PH liquor firm investing P5.8B in Spain

Emperador Distillers Inc., the liquor manufacturing arm of tycoon Andrew Tan, is investing P5.8 billion to acquire more assets and scale up operations in Spain over the next 12 months as part of its goal to become a strong global brandy brand.

The investment will be made through EDI’s overseas arm, Emperador International Ltd., which earlier took over Bodega San Bruno S.A., a brandy company based in Jerez, Spain.

Part of the P5.8-billion budget has already been invested through Bodega San Bruno and Grupo Emperador Spain S.A., both of which are owned by Emperador. “We have completed the first phase of our acquisition, which includes a sizable inventory of high-quality, well-matured brandy, which are now being stored and aged in sherry casks, as well as 509 hectares of prime vineyard land in Toledo, Spain,” said Jorge Domecq Bohórquez, managing director of Emperador International.

In a statement Wednesday, Bohórquez said the next phase of Emperador’s investment in Spain would include the acquisition of more vineyards and other brandy production facilities, which include distilling and bottling plants. Due diligence was being conducted for these acquisitions, he added.

“We have achieved remarkable progress in our investment in Spain, of which we are very pleased,” said Domecq. “Our next steps forward will further strengthen our position as the world’s number one brandy company by volume, and make us exceptionally competitive as a global brandy producer.”

Emperador Deluxe Spanish edition, a brandy produced and bottled in Spain, is Emperador’s newest successful offering. “We launched Emperador Deluxe early this year to a very warm reception and the response of the Philippine market continues to be very good. We are looking closely into tapping other Asian markets such as China and Vietnam, initially,” said Domecq.

EDI, a subsidiary of conglomerate Alliance Global Group Inc. (AGI), earlier announced its ambition to double sales volume in five years and become a dominant global brandy producer. Its target is to acquire a market share of 33 percent. On the production side, the group expects Emperador to be bottled in different parts of the world with Spain seen eventually accounting for 25 percent of the total.

“Our home-grown conglomerates are expanding overseas. What they seem to have in common: liquidity, strong management and acquisition timing,” said local stock brokerage DA Market Securities. “Emperador’s expansion and acquisition of assets in Spain is a great move by AGI. Spain’s assets are discounted as a result of the euro crisis.”

Emperador is the world’s largest-selling brandy brand in the world with a sales volume of 31 million cases in 2012.