D&L projects over 20% growth in 2016 exports

Lao family-led food and plastic input manufacturer D&L Industries expects to resume posting export growth of more than 20 percent this year, reversing the contraction seen last year as a result of port congestion problems.

D&L chief finance officer Alvin Lao told reporters yesterday that in the last five years, the company’s exports had expanded by high 20-percent levels.

Its export products consist mostly of specialty plastics, oleochemicals and food input exports.

About 17 percent of D&L’s business to date comes from exports, mostly within Asia but its products go as far as the United States and Europe, Lao said.

The company’s BHAG or “big hairy audacious goal” is to grow the share of its export business to 50 percent of total revenue.  Lao said this could happen within 10 years.

In 2015, however, D&L’s exports contracted because of the port congestion, partly caused by the truck ban imposed last year by the city of Manila.

In 2014, about 18 percent of the company’s total sales came from exports amounting to P3.68 billion or up by about a third.

Established in 1963, D&L manufactures customized food ingredients, specialty raw materials for plastics, and oleochemicals for personal and home care use. It has the largest market share in each of the industries it serves, as well as longstanding customer relationships with the Philippines’ leading consumer and chemical companies.