At the opening of a new bottling plant last week, Coca-Cola Co.“s Philippine unit announced an expansion programme aimed at strengthening its position in the country“s soft drinks market over the ne…
At the opening of a new bottling plant last week, Coca-Cola Co.“s Philippine unit announced an expansion programme aimed at strengthening its position in the country“s soft drinks market over the next five years. Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc. is 70%-owned by food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corp. and 30% by the Coca-Cola Company of the United States. In the Philippines“ soft drinks market, the company has a total market share of 75%. “Coca-Cola has opened its 21st bottling plant in the Philippines as part of a US$ 1.7 billion five-year spending programme to meet growing product demand and strengthen its leadership position in the country,” the company said in a statement. Coca-Cola Philippines said the new bottling plant will have an initial annual production capacity of more than 31 million cases. The new plant, located in Laguna south of Manila, is one of the largest soft drinks complexes in the world, built at a total investment of 3.1 billion pesos (US$ 118 million), the statement said. “The Philippines has become one of our most important markets internationally,” the statement quoted Douglas Ivester, president and chief operating officer of The Coca-Cola Company, as saying during the inauguration of the new plant last Thursday. Officials said the expansion programme in the Philippines would include plants, products and marketing. The Philippines is estimated to have consumed about 2.2 billion litres of soft drinks in 1996. “For 1997, we are expecting a 14-15% increase in sales volume,” a company official said. In 1996, the firm“s sales increased by 14%. Its revenues grew 20% to 26.3 billion pesos and operating income rose 13% to 4.64 billion pesos. Coca-Cola was the first cola drink to reach the Philippines, arriving 70 years ago. It was then made by San Miguel Corp. under licence. To take advantage of a fast-growing market, Coca-Cola and San Miguel set up the joint venture Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines in 1981. Coca-Cola“s international rival Pepsi Inc. holds a smaller market share in the Philippines and the competition is mainly from the local soft drinks firm Cosmos Bottling Corp., which in 1996 managed to raise its market share to 15% from 7% the previous year.