The Po family’s Century Canning group has acquired the Swift-branded meat business of RFM Corp. for P850 million as part of a strategy to scale up its frozen food business while positioning to be a regional food and beverage conglomerate.
After the deal, the Century group would be open to more acquisition opportunities, including a prospective return to the beverage business alongside an expansion into neighboring Southeast Asian markets, Century Group founder and chair Ricardo Po said in an interview Wednesday.
Elsewhere in the region, Century was looking at expansion opportunities in Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia, Po said.
Century is considering a beverage comeback after the lapse of the non-compete clause prescribed five years ago when the group sold its beverage business under the doypack fruit juice brand “Plus” to the Zest-O group of businessman Alfredo Yao.
Yesterday, Concepcion-led RFM disclosed to the Philippine Stock Exchange that it had signed an asset sale deal with the Century group’s meat subsidiary Pacific Meat Co. Inc.
“The sale transaction covers the Swift brand and specific processed meat equipment and current raw materials and finished product inventories, which can reach a total amount of P800-850 million,” the RFM disclosure said. “The transaction will allow RFM to focus and expand on its businesses where it is strong, such as in Selecta, its ice cream joint venture with Unilever, Fiesta pasta, White King flour-based mixes, Selecta Milk, and Sunkist beverages.”
The deal excludes the meat plant and building in Cabuyao, Laguna, which will continue to be used by RFM for its other food and beverage products. Po said Century, for its part, had excess capacity at its own Laguna manufacturing facility that could process up to 500 million metric tons of hotdogs a month.
“We have excess capacity because we’ve always wanted to prepare ourselves for expansion. This (deal) is very timely,” Po said.
Century’s Pacific Meat started the canned meat business 15 years ago and now has a market share of more than 40 percent in the corned beef segment. The unit also produces meatballs, liverspread and other canned products.
“We say that to become a big company we have to go to the frozen food, the biggest market of which is hotdog, which is quite sizeable, if not bigger than canned food,” he said, noting the group’s existing Argentina and Century hotdog brands.
Po said his group was proud to have acquired the Swift brand, which had a long history dating back to 1855 in Chicago. “I promised Joey I will try hard to do well and to give what the brand deserves,” he said.