Gardenia investing P1 B for new Mindanao plant

MANILA, Philippines — Bread manufacturer Gardenia Bakeries is investing P1 billion in a new fully automated plant which will serve the growing market for its products in Mindanao.

Gardenia president Jun Umali said the company would soon start construction of a state-of-the-art bread manufacturing facility in a 2.5-hectare property in the Phividec Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental.

“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 from all over the world like in Germany, the Netherlands, United States, United Kingdom, Malaysia and Japan,” Umali said.

He said Gardenia would take advantage of its location to ensure regular availability of ingredients supplies through the ports of Cagayan de Oro.

The manufacturing facility will be capable of producing 130,000 loaves and buns a day, to be distributed with an expanded fleet of trucks all over Mindanao.

Umali said the Mindanao expansion is in line with the company’s thrust to bring fresh and quality products closer to consumers.

“Currently, Gardenia already distributes in Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Surigao and Zamboanga del Norte coming from its plant in Cebu, but there is still a big potential for the market,” he said.

“The new plant will cater to the increasing bread demand of Mindanao and will ensure greater availability of Gardenia loaves and buns across various distribution channels in the southern part of the country,” Umali added.

The Mindanao plant will be Gardenia’s third largest manufacturing plant in the country. Its biggest plant in Laguna caters to the Luzon market while the other in Cebu serves the Visayas market.

Umali said the Mindanao investment is only the first of a series of business expansions that the company will be making in the next few months.

Gardenia has been the market leader in the packaged bread industry in the Philippines with more than 60 percent market share.

Umali said the fusion of bakery equipment from the different parts of the world and globally sourced premium ingredients for baking are among Gardenia’s advantages in the local market.

“Gardenia’s operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, China and Indonesia helped it develop the expertise of combining the best baking equipment from different sources worldwide and make them work as one integrated unit which enable us to develop a proprietary manufacturing process unique to Gardenia,” he said.

In 2015, Gardenia entered the unpackaged bread market through Big Smile Bread Station, a community-bakery type of bread store, and Bakers Maison, an artisanal specialty bakery featuring French breads and pastries.

The company also expanded its operations in the same year through a P1-billion plant in Laguna.