Gardenia puts up plant in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines - Gardenia Bakeries is expanding its operation in the country by putting up a bread plant in Cebu to cater to the needs of the Cebu and Northern Mindanao market. 

Gardenia’s new plant features giant horizontal mixers from the United States, an automated dough divider-rounder and intermediate proofer equipment from the Netherlands, a tunnel oven with a race track bread cooling conveyor from Germany, and an automated slicer and bread bagger from the United States.

Gardenia will utilize the finest ingredients from all over the world to ensure Cebuanos that they can have the same high quality and great tasting Gardenia loaf breads enjoyed in the country as well as in Singapore and Malaysia, where the brand is the market leader.  

The Cebu plant is expected to produce 2,000 loaves per hour or a daily capacity of nearly 50,000 loaves. Among the wide array of Gardenia bread products that will be initially offered are Classic White Bread, High Fiber Wheat Bread and some flavored loaves.

Currently, Gardenia bread is the leader in Metro Manila with a market share exceeding 65% based on Nielsen retail data. It is widely distributed all over Luzon. Likewise, the company covers the Western part of Visayas including Mindoro, Panay and Negros islands and Eastern part of the Visayas serving the major islands of Samar and Leyte by utilizing the country’s Roll-On Roll-Off (RORO) nautical highway through its fleet of company-owned feeder trucks.   

“Unfortunately, it takes a longer time to ship breads to Cebu and since Gardenia guarantees freshness in all its delivery, the only way to serve them is to put a plant in Cebu,” declared Nestor Constancia, Marketing and Sales Manager.  

He further stated that the Cebu plant will also serve the bread requirements of Bohol, Cagayan de Oro, Malaybalay, Butuan and Iligan. Gardenia’s unique distribution system will utilize a new fleet of feeder trucks and delivery vans within these cities. 

The demand in the Visayas and Mindanao markets pushes Gardenia to rapidly embark in this Cebu plant investment. 

“We received a lot of requests, emails and letters from customers insisting that we fast track our plans to operate there. They are already aware of the brand as some people bring Gardenia breads to their provinces as pasalubong to their family and in addition, they are able to purchase it through LBC,” said Simplicio Umali Jr., Gardenia Philippines president.

He also stated that LBC has been very helpful in making Gardenia products available all over the country as consumers can order Gardenia from LBC branches for delivery right at their doorsteps at very reasonable cost.      

This expansion plan will generate 100 jobs for the locals of Cebu. Its HR team has hired employees that are now being trained in the company’s modern plant facility in Laguna before they will be deployed to their respective jobs in Cebu.

“We fast tracked our hiring process because successful candidates really need to undergo intensive training especially on our most advanced baking technique, HACCP and ISO procedures,” said Umali.