San Miguel celebrates 125th year

CHEERS TO SAN MIGUEL BEER AT 125 National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) Chair Maria Serena Diokno (middle), San Miguel Corp. officials, led by its president Ramon Ang (third from left), and the Beermen basketball team say cheers on the 125th anniversary of the home-grown Pale Pilsen, now a world-famous beer. Also in the photo are NHCP Commissioner Rene Escalante (left), San Miguel Brewery Inc. president Roberto N. Huang (second from left), San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corp. president Ferdinand Tumpalan (third from right), San Miguel Brewing International Ltd. managing director Carlos Antonio Berba (second from right) and Philippine Postal Corp. board chair Cesar Sarino (right). ELOISA LOPEZ

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has gone to great lengths to be where it is today—125 years to be exact.

SMC, the country’s largest conglomerate in terms of asset size, on Tuesday marked its 125th year since it set up shop in 1890 as La Fabrica de Cerveza de San Miguel—a single product brewery—in the San Miguel district of Manila. The exact site is now part of the Malacañang grounds.

The group now has interests in several industries with consolidated revenues of $20 billion annually, SMC president Ramon Ang told the Inquirer after Tuesday’s celebration at the company’s Ortigas Center headquarters.

“We plan to double the group’s revenues to at least $40 billion, and maybe even $50 billion, over the next five years through a combination of acquisitions and organic growth,” Ang said.

In particular, the SMC chief said, the group will continue to invest heavily in the energy sector to meet the growing needs of the booming economy. The Philippines still has the second-most expensive electricity rates in Asia next to Japan.

SMC will also redouble its efforts to grow its infrastructure business to help ease road congestion in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces, as well as a new international airport to ease the plight of international and domestic travelers.

“Finally, we also want to enter the telecommunications space to give Filipinos better mobile phone and Internet services,” Ang said.

“If you look at other countries, there is always space for a third player. And this is especially true in the Philippines where services can be improved,” he added.

The company earlier announced that it had tied up with Australian telecommunications giant Telstra for mobile phone and Internet service venture that might be launched by late 2015 or early 2016.

During Tuesday’s celebration, SMC unveiled a new commemorative coin made of Nordic gold. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas minted the special batch to mark the company’s contribution to Philippine society.

Commemorative postage stamps were also issued by Philippine Postal Corp. to celebrate the company’s flagship product—the iconic Pale Pilsen beer known worldwide.

Also, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines unveiled a marker at the lobby of the company’s head office in Mandaluyong City.

In 1890, the company only had 70 employees, producing 47,000 cases of lager beer a year. The company changed its name to San Miguel Brewery, and again to San Miguel in 1963, as it moved from its old Aviles, Manila, headquarters to a new office on Ayala Avenue in 1963.

In 1984, the company moved to its present headquarters, which is one of the first in the country to incorporate environment-friendly elements into its design.