Mondelez eyes expansion of Parañaque plant

MANILA, Philippines - Food manufacturing firm Mondelez Philippines, Inc. (MPI) is studying an expansion of its plant in Paranaque City as it sees growing demand for its products.

“There is a study for a plan to expand the plant,” MPI site manager Jose Villanueva III told reporters yesterday.

This, as the firm expects growing demand for its products here and overseas.

“We want to meet local demand and export,” Villanueva said.

The MPI plant manufactures cheese and sandwich spread products under the following brands: Eden Cheese, Cheez Whiz, Kraft Cheddar, Miracle Whip, Eden Mayo and Eden Sandwich Spread.

Villanueva declined to give the plant’s annual production capacity, but said that the bulk of products made are sold to the domestic market, while about five to seven percent are exported to markets like Indonesia, Malaysia as well as countries in the Middle East.

MPI is among the companies that have committed to participate in the government’s Interruptible Load Program (ILP) which is expected to help address the country’s expected power supply shortage this summer.

Under the ILP, firms would be compensated for the use of their own generating facilities or generator sets during peak hours to ease demand on the grid.

Estrella Raquin, safety, security and environment manager at MPI, said that while the company is ready to use its gen sets to support the operations of its plant under the program, it has yet to sign the contract with Department of Energy.

“We expect to finalize the contract this week or next week,” she said.

She said that the company’s gen sets have enough capacity to support the plant’s operations.

MPI’s plant, which operates three shifts per day from Monday to Saturday, has a 1.5-megawatt monthly power consumption.

Even as the firm is participating in the ILP, it is looking to further expand the use of renewable energy.

At present, MPI uses solar tubes and solar panels to power its perimeter lights and corporate offices in order to reduce demand for electricity.

Last year, it also installed a biomass boiler which uses rice husks to generate steam to support the factory’s production process during ingredients preparation and machine cleaning.