As SMC cranks up factories, MSMEs find work again

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) has reported a recovery in its food and beverage business in recent months as the government started to ease the lockdown protocols meant to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

“With the government’s easing of restrictions on transportation, the operation of business establishments and consumption of alcoholic beverages, we’ve been recovering a lot of lost ground,” SMC president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang said last Friday.

“Recovery started around second half of May to June, when government gradually restarted our economy and kept it going,” Ang added.

Ang hailed the decision of President Duterte and his economic team to reopen Metro Manila and other regions for business. Even with current limitations, he said SMC had seen the favorable “domino effect” on smaller businesses in its supply chain.

“With consumption up, many of our own employees and those of our partners, dealers, suppliers, contract growers and service providers are working again. On top of that, lots of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) nationwide—from sari-sari stores, retailers, bottle collectors to haulers—are also able to resume their business and livelihood. This helps ensure that more Filipinos won’t go hungry and are more resilient to the impact of this crisis,” Ang said.

SMC’s food and beverage businesses under San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc. (SMFB) has interests in beer and nonalcoholic beverages, food and spirits.

Local beer giant San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB), which accounts for bulk of SMFB’s business, is looking at better business performance in the second half of 2020.

Liquor bans during the stricter lockdown period affec­ted the performance of this unit. But since the transition to more relaxed quarantine levels, SMB has restarted operations in production facilities nationwide and transported and distributed its products while strictly observing modified liquor ban guidelines in specific cities and municipalities.

The easing of restrictions has also allowed SMB’s business partners and outlets to operate on a limited scale.

San Miguel Foods Inc. likewise reported improvements in its revenues starting June.

From practically zero business activity in April, SMFB hard liquor arm Ginebra San Miguel Inc., was also able to turn in record monthly volumes in June.

But Ang said that without a cure for the virus, there will always be uncertainty for businesses.

“[We] recognize that the threat of the pandemic is still here. We cannot go all out in terms of operations and activities. As companies, we need to be accountable and responsible for ensuring the safety of our employees and custo­mers,” he said. INQ