URC plans to put up a sugar refinery to make it a top producer

Universal Robina Corp. (URC), the food manufacturing unit of the Gokongwei family’s JG Summit Holdings Inc., is putting up a new sugar refinery to support the expansion of its beverage business.

URC president Lance Gokongwei said the new refinery, expected to be operational by October 2006, will make URC one of the three biggest sugar producers in the country.

Gokongwei said the group is also expanding its existing sugar mills to meet the sugar requirements of its beverage products.

Following the success of C2, its green tea-based line of beverage products, URC is adding more production lines to keep up with rapidly growing demand.

Gokongwei said the company is planning to build one beverage plant overseas and six local production lines, each costing between $10 million and $12 million to build.

About $40 million has been earmarked for the expansion of URC’s beverage and sugar refinery businesses.

URC subsidiary Southern Negros Development Corp. (Sonedco) has set aside P1.17 million to buy new equipment for the production of raw sugar and molasses in its facilities in Kabangkalan, Negros Occidental.

Sonedco intends to expand raw sugar production from its yearly production capacity of 1.312 million LKG (50-kilo bag units) of raw sugar, in addition to the current 1.377 million LKG. The expansion is also expected to produce less than 40,000 metric tons (MT) of molasses a year.

Sonedco, which started to modernize in 1993, is expected to market sugar locally as the current expansion will not cover the export market.

URC is one of the largest branded food product companies in the Philippines with a growing presence in other Asian markets. It aims to make its mark in Asia over the next five years as a major regional food brand.

Founded in 1954 when John Gokongwei Jr. established Universal Corn Products, a cornstarch manufacturing plant in Pasig, the company has since expanded and is now involved in a wide range of food businesses including the manufacture and distribution of branded consumer foods, flour milling, as well as, sugar milling and refining.

In addition, the company produces hogs and day-old chicks and manufactures animal and fish feeds, glucose and veterinary compounds.