Montosco Inc. of retailer Lucio Co is looking to capture a share of the country’s growing light brandy market with the introduction of a new brand of Spanish imported brandy.
Jose Paulino L. Santamarina, president of Montosco sister firm Premiere Wine and Spirits Inc., said the company was bringing in Excelente light brandy, produced from Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain, following the government’s implementation of the simplified excise tax system.
“The government made the excise tax rates uniform and singular for both local and imported spirits and that gave us the opportunity to enter into the price point that we cannot before. This is why we are now able to launch a high quality imported spirit at an affordable price of P95 per bottle,” Santamarina said on the sidelines of the Excelente launch Thursday night.
The target is to sell some 500,000 cases (of 12 bottles each) to P1 million cases next year, and in the next five years, capture 10 percent of the share of the dominant leading light brandy, which is Emperador Light.
That 10 percent share will be equivalent to about 3.1 million cases, as sales of the Emperador Light stood at 31 million cases last year, according to Santamarina.
In a separate interview with reporters, Alfonso Roldan, export manager for Spanish firm Bodegas Williams and Humbert, said the company had invested $10 million to produce Excelente, which is blended exclusively for the Philippine market.
“If everything goes well, we may consider producing the Excelente here,” Roldan added.
Bodega Williams and Humbert used the same traditional Solera System style it used in producing other brands such as the Alfonso range of brandies.
Excelente is Montosco’s first attempt to capture this market after years as local distributor of high quality imported brands such as Jack Daniels, Jose Cuervo Tequila and Chivas Regal.
Montosco is the liquor and spirits distribution arm of Cosco Capital Inc., which has holdings in retail with giants Puregold and S&R; commercial and mixed-use real estate, oil exploration and mining.