GINEBRA San Miguel Inc., the liquor unit of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., recorded the fastest growth in market share, among the country’s major liquor players last year, even as it claims to be in talks with three foreign hard-liquor producers for possible overseas acquisitions or investments.
San Miguel President and COO Ramon S. Ang said there are lots of opportunities to acquire, and most target acquisitions are international operations.
“We are talking to three who are into the hard-liquor business,” he said.
“There are brokers handling the acquisition deals for hard liquor,” Ang said, adding San Miguel is interested in pursuing every opportunity to expand its businesses.
Ang said there is an element of luck in foreign acquisitions. “If you notice, we have a lot of acquisitions during the last eight years. We have a success rate of 80 percent. I hope we will be lucky again with these planned acquisitions.” Ginebra said the strong performance of both its flagship brand Ginebra gin and its other heritage brand, Vino Kulafu—which registered 5-percent and 12-percent volume growth, respectively—boosted the company’s market share to almost 30 percent last year, according to Nielsen’s annual Retail Audit.
The company attributed its robust performance to the positive consumer response to the campaign for Ginebra gin, and trade and consumer activities for Vino Kulafu—which it claimed as the most popular Chinese wine in Southern Philippines.
Ginebra registered P188 million in operating income for the first quarter of the year, or double its performance for the same period in 2015.
Consolidated revenues reached P3.9 billion, up 7 percent from the same period in 2015, on the back of stronger volumes.
Sales volume reached 5.3 million cases, 7 percent higher than last year.
“We’re confident the company will sustain its gains for the rest of the year with relevant marketing initiatives that will resonate across consumer segments,” Ginebra President Bernie Marquez said.
Based on the Nielsen Retail Audit, the company already reclaimed leadership in North Luzon and South Luzon as of March 2016.