URC in JV with Japan snack food giant

Gokongwei-led Universal Robina Corp. has finalized a deal with Japan’s largest snack food company Calbee Inc. to establish a local manufacturing joint venture which is expected to grow into a P2-billion company in terms of annual net sales by 2020.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Monday, URC said it signed the 50-50 percent joint venture agreement with Calbee on Friday.  The disclosure said the venture would  manufacture “unique and high quality” snack products in the Philippines and was expected to start business by 2015.

“The joint venture aims to grow sales of Calbee products and expand market share in the Philippines,” the disclosure said.

The initial paid-in capital of the joint venture company to be called Calbee-URC Inc. is P654 million.  It will be based in Pasig City.

As the joint venture company aims to have annual net sales of P2 billion by 2020, the disclosure said it’s “expected to contribute to URC’s medium- to long-term business performance.”

For its part, Calbee sees the Philippines as “one of the promising snack foods markets.”

Tokyo-based Calbee is the largest snack food company in Japan, with 2013 sales of over 179.4 billion yen and a dominant 52.3-percent share of the Japanese snack food market. Doris C. Dumlao