Cojuangco projects 20% growth for San Miguel

San Miguel Corp. (SMC) chairman and chief executive officer Eduardo M. Cojuangco Jr. is projecting a 20 percent growth in revenues for the food and beverage conglomerate over the next two years.

Cojuangco said yesterday the growth will come from higher sales and broader market share, as well as from strategic acquisitions SMC undertook recently.

"Our acquisition of Metro Bottled Water Corp. has benefited La Tondeña. Our purchase of J. Boag & Son has contributed significantly to the bottom line of SMC as well. And it has opened up Australia to the San Miguel Beer brand," Co- juangco said.

Last year, SMC acquired J. Boag & Son and Sugarland Beverage Corp. Its recent buy-back of Coca-Cola Amatil and its purchase of Pure Foods Corp. from the Ayala Corp. are also expected to contribute to SMC’s bottom line.

"We are also looking at new fields to be developed through these acquisitions. With Pure Foods, we can look at new areas in the food group. We’ve never been in the flour business, for instance, and Pure Foods has a flour mill. This will allow us to go into new products like, say, noodles and such foods," Co-juangco disclosed.

The SMC chief executive also said the company will remain aggressive in taking opportunities. "We will look at companies that have synergies with food, soft drinks, liquor, beer and whatever we have right now which would strengthen our position and consolidate things for us," Cojuangco added.

SMC posted a recurring net income of P7.5 billion from sales of P88.705 billion last year, up from P6.016 billion in 1999.

On the beer side, while the industry contracted by 4.2 percent as a result of the economic downturn and lower farm incomes, SMC’s beer division managed the decline at three percent and still increased market share.

Hard liquor subsidiary La Tondeña Distillers Inc. registered a 34 percent increase in net income to P1.35 billion from consolidated sales revenues of P14.2 billion.

SMC’s food and agribusiness revenues went up 12 percent to P17.6 billion.