San Miguel Brewery nets P13.5B

SCREENGRAB from sanmiguelbrewery.com.ph

LOCAL beer giant San Miguel Brewery Inc. grew its net profit last year by 7.9 percent to P13.5 billion as beer sales picked up despite the imposition of higher excise taxes.

The beer-making arm of conglomerate San Miguel Corp. posted a 5 percent growth in consolidated sales revenues to P79 billion in 2014, buoyed by a strong rebound in domestic beer volumes to 172.5 million cases, SMB said in a press statement on Thursday.

Improved collections also resulted in a 6 percent decline in consolidated accounts receivables, the company said.

For its domestic operations, SMB said it had implemented new campaigns and relevant consumer and trade programs focusing on “relatively small but many activations at grassroots level to boost equity and beer consumption of SMB brands.”

Overseas, SMB introduced Cerveza Negra and San Mig Light in draught formats to further improve volumes in the international market.  Exports were likewise pushed to bring the iconic Filipino beer brand to the overseas market.