Monde Nissin expands noodle production capacity in PH, Thailand

Consumer giant Monde Nissin is expanding its noodle production capacity in the Philippines and Thailand as well as its meat alternative production capacity in the United Kingdom to meet increasing consumer demand.

This developed as Monde booked P2.84 billion in third quarter net income, up by 1.2 percent year-on-year on the back of record revenues during the quarter.

For the nine-month period, Monde’s net profit declined by 63.9 percent year-on-year due to one-off items, such as the impact of Arran convertible notes, foreign exchange , initial public offering-related expenses and net tax benefit.

Excluding nonrecurring items, its core profit amounted to P7.12 billion in the first nine months, down by 5.3 percent year-on-year.

“We continue to progress on our capacity expansion initiatives with our first noodle line in our newly constructed plant in Southern Luzon, which became operational in September and now is awaiting regulatory approvals to begin shipping products; and we commissioned our fourth fermenter for our meat alternative business in July,” said Henry Soesanto, chief executive of Monde.

“We remain on track with our 2022 capacity expansion plans including additional healthy noodles lines and the completion of our fourth harvester for Quorn Foods,” he added.

In a press briefing on Thursday, Monde chief financial officer Jesse Teo said Monde was investing an initial P2 billion in a new production hub in Malvar, Batangas. The first noodle line is now operational and expected to boost Monde’s local noodle production capacity by 5 to 10 percent.

But this is a big facility that can accommodate more production lines and other products, not just noodles. But for now, he said it’s capacity for noodles that Monde urgently needed as demand for these products was brisk during this pandemic.

In Thailand, Teo said two additional high-speed airflow lines for the production of “healthy” noodles would be operational by early 2022. Out of this new Thailand hub, Monde expects to start exporting products to Vietnam by August next year.

—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla