Gardenia to invest P1B in a new plant in Mindanao

Leading bread manufacturer Gardenia Bakeries plans to invest close to P1 billion in a fully automated bread manufacturing plant in Mindanao in a bid to meet growing demand in southern Philippines.

In a statement on Tuesday, the company said it would soon construct a new state-of-the-art bread manufacturing facility within the Phividec Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental, near Cagayan de Oro (CDO).

This will be the company’s third large manufacturing plant in the country.

Its first and biggest manufacturing plant in Laguna caters to market demand in Luzon, while the plant in Cebu services Visayas.

The company, which accounts for more than 60 percent of the bread market in the country, said the facility in Mindanao could produce 130,000 loaves and buns a day, which would be distributed all over southern Philippines.

“Gardenia’s Mindanao plant is a completely new breadline that will feature robotics and the latest available technologies in modern baking sourced from the best bakery equipment suppliers,” Gardenia president Jun Umali said in a statement. —ROY C. CANIVEL