Monde spending P7.5B as it prepares for biscuit wars

Snacks maker Monde Nissin Corp. will spend this year P7.5 billion, which will mostly go to a new biscuit plant and to boost its market share as competition tightens.

Monde chief financial officer Jesse Teo told reporters in a press briefing last week that P6.6 billion of the budget would go to the company’s Asia-Pacific branded food and beverage unit, its main revenue driver.

In investing in a new biscuit plant, Teo said they needed more capacity for M.Y. San Grahams and SkyFlakes crackers “immediately.”

“There are more active [biscuit] players in the recent quarter … while we have strong share gains for M.Y. San Grahams and SkyFlakes, our other biscuits did not grow as much,” Teo said during their earnings call.

Monde ranked second in the biscuit category during the fourth quarter of 2024, with a market share of 28.5 percent, down from 29.2 percent.

Although volume growth was at 9 percent last year, Teo emphasized that their competitors were growing faster.

“This is the reason why we have to build a new plant. We don’t want to lose by default by not being able to supply,” the CFO added.

The company currently has a manufacturing plant in Davao City that supplies the island group with Lucky Me! instant noodles. Monde pursued a P1.2-billion expansion plan for the plant in 2023 to include a bakery and biscuit facility.

Monde swung back to profitability last year as it posted a net income of P1.65 billion coming from a net loss of P698 million in 2023.

The company had a 68.7-percent market share in the noodle category versus 67.3 percent during the same period in 2023, making it the top noodle brand in the country.

The remaining amount of Monde’s capital expenditure will be infused into Quorn Foods, the meat alternative business, to help plug the bleeding and reduce debt, according to Teo.

Newly appointed Quorn CEO David Flochel said they had launched a multiyear program aimed at turning around the losses of the business segment, which had been suffering from weak demand.

According to Flochel, the program will focus on saving costs and executing plans based on consumer-based insights, among others.

Quorn pared its losses by 17 percent to P804 million last year on lower costs of raw materials and utilities.

However, net sales declined by 4.5 percent to P13.6 billion on the back of low production volume. —Meg J. Adonis INQ