MANILA, Philippines – The Gokongwei-led Universal Robina Corp. expects the sales of its offshore food and beverage business to grow by over a third this year to $440-$450 million and expand international operations further to become as large as its domestic business by 2014.
URC president Lance Gokongwei also announced that the company had earmarked $100 to $110 million for capital spending this year, about 80 percent of which would be to beef up its branded food business.
“The bulk of that is going to expand the beverage business in Vietnam as well as the Philippines. We’re adding snack and biscuit lines in the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia,” Gokongwei told reporters after the company’s annual stockholders meeting late Wednesday.
“Our priority is to grow our international business with focus on Asean [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] – Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. We’ll grow our business there such that by 2014, it’s the same size as our Philippine business,” Gokongwei said.
In China, Gokongwei said URC was still losing money – “but it’s improving.” He said it may take some time for the operations in China to become profitable.
The projected international sales for this fiscal year ending September suggested a growth of 38-41 percent over the $319 million turnover recorded in the previous fiscal year.
With the international unit’s P9.4 billion ($215 million) in sales in the six-month period ending March this new fiscal year versus P14.6 billion in domestic sales for the same period, Gokongwei pointed out that URC’s offshore business was now equivalent to about two-thirds of local operations.