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San Miguel Corporation

 
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San Miguel Corporation

(Pink Sheets:SMGBY) (Philippine:SMC)
Contact Information
San Miguel Corporation
40 San Miguel Ave.
Mandaluyong, Metro Manila 1550, Philippines
Tel. +63-2-632-3000
Fax +63-2-632-3099

Type: Public
On the web: http://www.sanmiguel.com.ph

Filipinos filling out grocery lists turn to San Miguel Corporation (SMC). It is the largest beverage and food firm in the Philippines, with more than 100 facilities in Southeast Asia and China. The company makes most of its sales from its beverage unit (beer and liquor), while its Pure Food unit manufactures a variety of products, including meats, condiments, and coffee. SMC also has packaging operations, as well as a controlling stake in the country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation, a minority share in Manila Electric, and a joint venture with Qatar Telecom that operates a mobile and broadband businesses in the Philippines. SMC has other interests in energy, telecommunications, and banking.

Officers:
Chairman and CEO: Eduardo M. (Danding) Cojuangco Jr.
Vice Chairman, President, and COO: Ramon S. Ang
CFO, Treasurer, and Director: Ferdinand K. Constantino

Competitors:
First Pacific
JG Summit Holdings
Tsingtao

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San Miguel Corporation

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Incorporated: 1913 as La Fabrica de Cerveza de San Miguel
NAIC: 312120 Breweries; 312140 Distilleries; 312111 Soft Drink Manufacturing; 312112 Bottled Water Manufacturing; 311421 Fruit and Vegetable Canning; 112111 Beef Cattle Ranching and Farming; 112210 Hog and Pig Farming; 112320 Broilers and Other Meat Type Chicken Production; 112340 Poultry Hatcheries; 311119 Other Animal Food Manufacturing; 311211 Flour Milling; 311223 Other Oilseed Processing; 311225 Fats and Oils Refining and Blending; 311512 Creamery Butter Manufacturing; 311513 Cheese Manufacturing; 311611 Animal (Except Poultry) Slaughtering; 311612 Meat Processed from Carcasses; 311615 Poultry Processing; 322211 Corrugated and Solid Fiber Box Manufacturing; 327213 Glass Container Manufacturing; 332115 Crown and Closure Manufacturing; 332431 Metal Can Manufacturing

Best known for its internationally distributed beer, San Miguel Corporation can only be described in superlatives. It is southeast Asia's oldest and largest brewer. It also ranks as the Philippines' largest and one of its most consistently profitable companies. San Miguel's flagship beer utterly dominates the Filipino market, with a 90 percent market share. A 1988 brief in the Economist noted that Filipinos order "beer" at bars and restaurants, knowing that they will receive a San Miguel. But San Miguel did not make it to the top of the regional heap on good beer alone. It also makes agricultural feeds, processed and fresh meats, dairy products, coconut products, hard liquor, nonalcoholic beverages, and packaging products such as glass containers, corrugated cartons, aluminum cans, and metal crowns and caps. Through wholly or majority-owned subsidiaries, San Miguel holds dominating market shares in several food and beverage sectors in the Philippines: 90 percent of carbonated beverages, 58 percent of powdered juice, 56 percent of hard liquor, and more than 80 percent of margarine and butter. By the early 2000s, beer and other alcoholic beverages constituted only about one-third of San Miguel's annual turnover. In fact, the conglomerate had, by 2001, grown over the course of its more than 110 years in business to generate 3.6 percent of its home country's gross domestic product and 4.5 percent of government tax revenue.

San Miguel grew to its commanding position in the southeast Asian market in spite of political upheaval, infrastructure glitches, and high taxes. It achieved its status through aggressive competitive strategies and shrewd long-range planning over the decades. Having diversified into agribusiness, foods, and packaging in the mid-20th century, the conglomerate dominated its domestic markets by the early 1980s. At that time, San Miguel undertook an aggressive program of international expansion that came to fruition in the mid-to-late 1990s.

Don Enrique Ma Barretto de Ycaza established the brewery, southeast Asia's first, in 1890 as La Fabrica de Cerveza de San Miguel. He named the company after the section of Manila in which he lived and worked. He was soon joined by Don Pedro Pablo Roxas, who brought with him a German brewmaster. San Miguel's brew won its first major award at 1895's Philippines Regional Exposition, and led its imported competitors by a five-to-one margin by the turn of the 20th century. The company was incorporated in 1913 following the death of Don Pedro Roxas.

By that time, San Miguel was exporting its namesake brew to Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Guam. Andrés Soriano y Roxas joined San Miguel in 1918, beginning a multigeneration (albeit interrupted) reign of Sorianos. In 1990, San Miguel's Beer Bulletin noted that "Beer was the heart of San Miguel's business, and the soul from which emanated all its other businesses." Andrés Soriano initiated the company's diversification, which proceeded rather logically via vertical integration. The experience cultivating barley naturally evolved into other agricultural businesses, for example. San Miguel gathered steam in the 1920s, when the company expanded into nonalcoholic beverages with the creation of the Royal Soft Drinks Plant in 1922. San Miguel entered the frozen foods market in 1925 with the creation of the Magnolia Ice Cream Plant. By the early 1990s, Magnolia held four-fifths of the frozen dessert market. Soriano created the first non-U.S. national Coca-Cola bottling and distribution franchise in 1927. The Philippine company owned 70 percent of the joint venture, which grew to become Coke's sixth largest operation. By the early 1990s, San Miguel had captured over two-thirds of the domestic soft drink market.

Although World War II interrupted San Miguel's brewing business, the company got back on the growth track in the postwar era, acquiring production facilities in Hong Kong in 1948. The company also resumed its program of vertical integration, even building its own power plant so that it would not be dependent on the Philippines' notoriously poor infrastructure. San Miguel also built a liquid carbon dioxide plant, glass bottle manufacturing facilities, and a carton plant during the postwar period.

The company shortened its name to San Miguel Corporation in 1963, and Andrés Soriano, Jr., advanced to the company's presidency upon his father's 1964 death. He has been credited with instituting modern management theory, including decentralization along product lines. Soriano, Jr., continued to diversify the food business during the early 1980s, expanding into poultry production in 1982, building an ice cream plant in 1983, and adding shrimp processing and freezing in 1984.

Over the decades, San Miguel earned a formidable reputation as a fierce competitor. The company used all the tools at its disposal. When it could not beat a rival through traditional means, it acquired and intimidated upstarts into submission. The Filipino government's complicity did not hurt, either. Long protected by high tariffs, San Miguel encountered its first major competitor in the beer market in the late 1970s. That was when Asia Brewery entered the segment. The rivalry between Asia Brewery and San Miguel came to a head in 1988, when Asia Brewery cannily introduced a bargain-priced "brand" called, simply, "Beer." The imported product looked and tasted like its primary competitor, playing upon the fact that in the Philippines, the San Miguel brand was synonymous with "beer." It was a creative counter to San Miguel's notoriously aggressive and sometimes cutthroat competitive strategy, which had reportedly included "attempts to sabotage [Asia Brewery's] sales network and smash its empty bottles." Asia Brewery, whose owner was reputedly connected to Marcos sympathizers, even hired away San Miguel's brewmaster.

Although San Miguel enjoyed virtual monopolies in its markets, that status did not shield it from the political machinations of the Philippines. The dictatorial reign of Ferdinand Marcos brought this element into sharp focus in the 1980s, when an intra-familial proxy fight at San Miguel turned political. The dispute was instigated in 1983 by Enrique Zobel, a wealthy cousin of the Sorianos who owned the Ayala banking and real estate group and sided with the Marcos government. Unable to execute a takeover on his own, Zobel sold his 19.5 percent stake to Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr. (known in some circles as "the coconut king"). Although Cojuangco was a cousin of Marcos opponent Corazon Aquino, he too sided with Marcos. Cojuangco's Coconut Industry Investment Fund (a.k.a., United Coconut Planters Bank) accumulated an additional 31 percent of San Miguel, giving him effective control of the conglomerate and leaving the Soriano family with a mere 3 percent. Cojuangco scooped up the chairmanship in 1984, when Andrés Soriano, Jr., died of cancer. However, his reign over San Miguel lasted only two years. When Marcos lost the 1986 election to Aquino amidst the "people power" revolution, Cojuangco and many other Marcos backers fled the country. (In fact, Marcos and Cojuangco left in the same helicopter.)

Andrés Soriano III resumed San Miguel's chairmanship and launched a campaign to reclaim the family legacy that year. But when the new chairman tried to buy back the abandoned shares, he was blocked by an unexpected agency; the Aquino administration's Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) assumed control (but not legal ownership) of the 51.4 percent stake and refused to relinquish it. The government asserted that the stake had been illegally obtained. In the 1970s Marcos had imposed a tax on the production of coconuts, a major Philippine cash crop, with the proceeds supposed to fund that industry's development. It was alleged, however, that the money was funneled into the Cojuangco-controlled United Coconut Planters Bank, and that Cojuangco then used much of the funds to help him purchase his controlling stake in San Miguel. The controlling interest carried nine of San Miguel's 15 directors seats with it. The PCGG continued to tend its San Miguel stake into the early 1990s, but it acceded de facto control of the conglomerate to Andrés Soriano III via a management contract with his A. Soriano Corp.

Soriano III was characterized by Business Week's Maria Shao as an "introverted, almost reclusive" leader. Schooled at the University of Pennsylvania's prestigious Wharton School, Soriano III had dabbled in investment banking in New York City before returning to the Philippines. Soriano tried everything from legal machinations to joint-venture buyout schemes to wrest control of San Miguel from the PCGG, but to no avail.

At the same time, Soriano III continued the company's program of expansion, acquiring majority control of La Tondeña Distillers, Inc., the leading producer of hard liquor in the Philippines, in 1987 and adding beef and pork production to the company's food operations in 1988.

In 1990 San Miguel threw a five-month party to celebrate its centenary. President Corazon Aquino called San Miguel "the best showcase of a Filipino company, a shining example of creative management and commitment to its public." The Economist contrastingly called San Miguel "a showcase for much that is wrong with business in the Philippines." The latter assertion was substantiated that same year, when Cojuangco returned to the Philippines (the Journal of Commerce noted that he "sneaked back into the country [in 1990] despite a ban on his return") to lay claim to his holdings. Notwithstanding the circumstances of his repatriation, a November 1992 article in Asian Business noted that "Cojuangco [was] expected to win eventually." All the same, Soriano III continued to hold the chairmanship. (Cojuangco, meantime, unsuccessfully ran for the Philippine presidency in 1992.)

Soriano III led the company to a new era of dramatic growth based on internationalization. This move was motivated by a number of factors. First, San Miguel had developed its core Philippine and Hong Kong markets to maturity and was faced with relatively slow growth there. Soriano hoped to expand into other countries and thereby mitigate the effects of the Philippines' unstable economy. Finally, the leader wanted to head off encroaching competition from the world's biggest breweries, namely Anheuser-Busch and Miller of the United States, Kirin of Japan, and BSN of France. In an interview with Asian Business' Michael Selwyn, San Miguel President Francisco C. Eizmendi, Jr., said that "what we are aiming to do is be a David among the Goliaths of international business, without losing our grip on the local market."

Having determined that overseas growth was imperative, Soriano allocated $1 billion to a five-year strategic internationalization program that focused on shaping up domestic operations, then progressing to licensing and exporting, overseas production, and finally to distribution of non-beer products. San Miguel's plant modernization plan involved sweeping improvements, from computerization to quality circles. These efforts laid the groundwork that would enable the company to compete with the world's food and beverage multinationals. A subsequent decentralization created a holding company structure with the 18 non-beer operations positioned as subsidiaries. This corporate reorganization freed the spun-off businesses from the bureaucratic shackles of a large conglomerate. In the course of this multifaceted effort to attain optimum efficiency, San Miguel reduced its workforce by more than 16 percent, from a 1989 high of 39,138 to 32,832 by 1993. Asian Business noted that these programs helped increase profit per employee by 56 percent in 1991 alone.

With its domestic "ducks in a row," San Miguel turned to the next stage in its internationalization, beer licensing, and exporting initiative. Although the company had exported beer for most of its history, this effort was intensified dramatically in the late 1980s. San Miguel's beer exports grew by 150 percent from 1985 to 1989 alone, and the brand was soon exported to 24 countries, including all of Asia's key markets as well as the United States, Australia, and the Middle East. Once the core brand was established in a particular market, San Miguel would begin to create production facilities, sometimes on an independent basis and sometimes in concert with an indigenous joint-venture partner. By 1995, San Miguel had manufacturing plants in Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Guam.

Thus, in spite of the overarching quarrel regarding San Miguel's ownership (not to mention other problems endemic to operating in the Philippines), the company's sales quintupled from P 12.23 billion in 1986 to P 68.43 billion by 1994. Net income increased twice as fast, from P 1.11 billion to P 11.86 billion over the same period, although San Miguel's overseas operations (as a whole) were not yet profitable.

In 1996 San Miguel purchased full control of its Hong Kong arm, San Miguel Brewery Hong Kong Limited. In April of the following year, San Miguel's domestic soft-drink bottling unit, Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, Inc., was merged into the Australia-based Coca-Cola Amatil Limited (CCA). In effect, San Miguel exchanged its 70 percent interest in a Philippine-only operation for a 25 percent stake in CCA, which had operations in 17 countries--both in the Asia-Pacific region and in Eastern Europe. CCA soon demerged the latter operations into a U.K.-based firm called Coca-Cola Beverages plc (resulting in a reduction of San Miguel's stake in CCA to 22 percent). Seeking to maintain its focus on the Asia-Pacific region, San Miguel sold its stake in the new U.K. entity in mid-1998.

From 1995 through 1997, San Miguel suffered from a downturn in its main domestic businesses, while overseas operations were still in the red. Profits plummeted. In response, a major restructuring of the company's loss-making food businesses was undertaken. San Miguel's ice cream and pasteurized milk business was merged with operations of Nestlé to form Nestlé Philippines, Inc., and late in 1998 San Miguel's stake in this business was sold off. San Miguel also exited from the ready-to-eat meal sector and curtailed the operations of its shrimp farming business.

By late 1997 the company was also beginning to feel the effects of the exploding Asian economic crisis. In addition, the price of its stock was declining. At this point, a Hong Kong-based conglomerate, First Pacific, stepped into the picture, acquiring a 2 percent stake in San Miguel and entering into negotiations to pay as much as $1.3 billion for the two government-sequestered stakes that remained the subject of lengthy litigation. First Pacific abandoned its takeover bid early in 1998, however, when the negotiations--which required a resolution of the status of the disputed stakes--ran afoul of Philippine election-year politics.

In April 1998 the anti-graft court handling the case of the disputed San Miguel stakes ruled that Cojuangco was entitled to vote 20 percent of the shares, although he was not given ownership of the shares. This enabled Cojuangco to install three new directors on the company board. Then in May, Joseph Estrada won the Philippine presidential election. Cojuangco had been the main financial backer of Estrada, a former movie actor who had been Cojuangco's vice-presidential running mate during their unsuccessful 1992 campaign, and Cojuangco also became chairman of Estrada's political party following Estrada's electoral victory. By early July 1998, Soriano III had resigned from his position as chairman of San Miguel, and the board of directors, which included seven government-controlled (and hence Estrada-controlled) seats, voted to return Cojuangco to the chairmanship. This marked an amazing comeback for the once-disgraced Cojuangco, and also left many observers worried about a possible return to the crony capitalism of the Marcos era.

Cojuangco moved quickly to turn around the fortunes of the foundering company. Restructuring moves included a flattening of management layers to speed up decision-making and make the company more responsive to the marketplace. Overseas, the international headquarters were moved from high-priced Hong Kong to low-priced Manila as part of a larger cost-cutting initiative. The company also raised its domestic beer prices to make up for revenue lost from higher taxes on beverages and liquor. San Miguel increased its share of the domestic bottled water market by acquiring Metro Bottled Water Corporation, maker of Wilkins Distilled Water, in July 1999. Later in 1999 San Miguel announced that it would sell its minority stake in CCA through a stock offering, but these plans were soon abandoned when CCA's stock price declined sharply. Income from operations for San Miguel rose slightly in 1998 before surging 63 percent in 1999.

Using a huge hoard of cash built through the recent asset sales, Cojuangco completed a series of acquisitions from 2000 to early 2002. During 2000, San Miguel purchased J. Boag & Son Limited, an Australian brewer, for about P 2.4 billion ($56 million), as well as Sugarland Multi-Food Corporation, a Philippine juice maker, for P 2.9 billion. The latter firm--renamed Sugarland Beverage Corporation--was jointly acquired by San Miguel and its majority-owned subsidiary, La Tondeña Distillers. Two major acquisitions of Philippine firms were then completed in 2001. Pure Foods Corporation was acquired for P 7.02 billion. Renamed San Miguel Pure Foods Company, Inc., the acquired company was a market leader in both processed meats and flour. The deal thereby expanded San Miguel's processed meat portfolio and also marked its first foray into the flour industry. In July 2001 San Miguel joined forces with the Coca-Cola Company to reacquire Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, with San Miguel taking a 65 percent stake and Coca-Cola the remaining 35 percent. As part of the deal, San Miguel sold its shares in CCA back to that company. Later in 2001, San Miguel sold its bottled water and juice businesses, now amalgamated as Philippine Beverage Partners, Inc., to Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines. Finally, in February 2002, San Miguel completed the acquisition of an 83 percent stake in Cosmos Bottling Corporation in a P 15 billion ($282 million) deal completed through Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines. Cosmos specialized in low-priced soft drinks and held the number two position in the Philippine market. The combination of Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines and Cosmos gave San Miguel control of more than 90 percent of the Philippine soft-drink industry.

During and following this period of acquisitiveness, the question of who owned San Miguel remained unresolved. Estrada became embroiled in a corruption scandal and was then forced from power in January 2001 in a popular uprising backed by the military. Replacing Estrada as president was Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who almost immediately began maneuvering to oust Cojuangco from the chairmanship of San Miguel as part of her campaign to rid the country of corruption. Arroyo sought to replace five directors appointed by Estrada, but a technicality prevented her from doing so prior to the May 2001 annual meeting. Cojuangco was thus able to retain his position as chairman. Then in December 2001 the Philippine Supreme Court ruled that Arroyo could in fact replace the five directors. Simultaneously, however, Cojuangco arranged a deal with the Japanese brewer Kirin Brewery Company, Limited whereby Kirin would invest P 27.88 billion ($544 million) for a 15 percent stake in San Miguel. Kirin finalized its investment in February 2002, gaining two board seats that Cojuangco could now count on to help him remain in power. By this time, Cojuangco had also gained popularity among investors for turning around the company and making it one of the most profitable in the country--despite a prolonged economic downswing; the government recognized this support by reaching a deal with Cojuangco in early 2002. Cojuangco could remain in control of the conglomerate until the anti-graft court determined the true ownership of the disputed shareholdings; in return the government would gain representation on important management committees and on the boards of 13 company subsidiaries.

San Miguel thus stood in the early 2000s as one of the most respected corporations in the Philippines, while at the same time facing an uncertain future because of the long-unresolved ownership dispute. In addition, there was a potential complication: Cojuangco was reportedly considering another run at the Philippine presidency for the May 2004 election.

Principal Subsidiaries

BEVERAGE BUSINESS: San Miguel Brewing International Ltd. (British Virgin Islands); San Miguel Brewery Hong Kong Limited; Guangzhou San Miguel Brewery Company Limited (China); San Miguel Bada Baoding Brewery Company Limited (China); San Miguel Shunde Brewery Company Limited (China); San Miguel Brewery Vietnam Limited; J. Boag & Son Limited (Australia); PT Delta Djakarta Tbk (Indonesia); La Tondeña Distillers, Inc. (78.81%); Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, Inc. (65%); Philippine Beverage Partners, Inc. (65%); Cosmos Bottling Corporation (83.2%). FOOD BUSINESS: Magnolia, Inc.; Star Dari, Inc.; San Miguel Pure Foods Company, Inc. (99.75%); San Miguel Foods, Inc. (99.75%); Monterey Foods Corporation (98%). PACKAGING BUSINESS: San Miguel Packaging International Limited (British Virgin Islands); San Miguel Yamamura Haiphong Glass Co., Ltd. (Vietnam); Zhaoqing San Miguel Glass Company Limited (China); Premium Packaging International, Inc.; Rightpak International Corporation; San Miguel Yamamura Ball Corporation (99%); San Miguel Rengo Packaging Corporation (70%); Mindanao Corrugated Fibreboard, Inc. (60%); San Miguel Yamamura Asia Corporation (60%); SMC Yamamura Fuso Molds Corporation (60%). REAL ESTATE BUSINESS: San Miguel Properties, Inc. (99%). OTHERS: ArchEn Technologies, Inc.; Beverage Packaging Specialist, Inc.; Challenger Aero Air Corp.; SMC Logistics Asia; SMC Stock Transfer Service Corporation; SMITS, Inc.; SMC Shipping & Lighterage Corporation (70%); Anchor Insurance Brokerage Corporation (58%).

Principal Divisions

Beverage; Food; Packaging.

Principal Competitors

Asia Brewery Inc.; Asahi Breweries, Ltd.; Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited; Foster's Group Limited.

Further Reading

Abueg, Jose Marte, "Soriano Adjusts to Aquino," Asian Business, September 1989, p. 6.

Alley, Lindsey, and Thomas Stanley, "San Miguel's Expansion into Southeast Asia," Journal of Asian Business, Summer 1993, pp. 71-92.

Arnold, Wayne, "Battle of San Miguel Takes an Unusual Path," New York Times, April 18, 2001, p. W1.

------, "Manila Decides It Can Get Along with a Marcos Ally," New York Times, February 27, 2002, p. W1.

Caplen, Brian, "San Miguel Brewery: Brewing Up New Business," Asian Business, April 1991, pp. 9-12.

Chavez, Gertrude, "Getting There," Global Finance, November 1997, pp. 47-49.

Frank, Robert, "Teflon Tycoon--The Crony Capitalist," Wall Street Journal, August 30, 1999, pp. A1+.

Friedland, Jonathan, "Not Quite the Last Rites," Far Eastern Economic Review, May 11, 1989, pp. 64+.

------, "Thirst for Power: Philippines' San Miguel Moves Closer to Cojuangco's Grasp," Far Eastern Economic Review, April 23, 1992, pp. 52+.

Furukawa, Tsukasa, "Ball Joins Philippine Can Venture," American Metal Market, October 20, 1994, p. 5.

Granitsas, Alkman, and Deidre Sheehan, "Manila's Strange Brew," Far Eastern Economic Review, May 10, 2001, pp. 46-51.

Hilsenrath, Jon E., and Rexie Reyes, "First Pacific Ends Talks to Boost San Miguel Stake," Asian Wall Street Journal, February 3, 1998, p. 3.

Hookway, James, "In the Philippines, San Miguel Deals a Blow to Arroyo," Wall Street Journal, May 4, 2001, p. A13.

Hookway, James, Cris Larano, and Helen Ubels, "San Miguel Jumps Back in As a Coca-Cola Bottler," Wall Street Journal, February 7, 2001, p. A21.

Jones, Arthur, "The Philippines," Forbes, December 19, 1983, p. 128.

Landingin, Roel, "Philippine Giant's Appeal Starts to Fall Flat," Financial Times, August 7, 2001, p. 31.

Martin, Neil A., "Clouds over Manila: Battle over Brewer Raises Old Issues in Philippines--Corruption and Cronyism," Barron's, May 10, 1999, pp. 22-23.

"Mine's a Beer (Patent Pending, All Rights Reserved)," Economist, October 29, 1988, p. 74.

Moore, Hannah, "Battle for San Miguel Brewing in Philippines," Journal of Commerce, March 6, 1991, p. 3A.

"Opéra Bouffe," Economist, April 28, 1990, pp. 72-73.

"The Philippines," Asiamoney, July/August 1995, p. 26.

"Returning the Empties," Economist, April 5, 1986, pp. 78-79.

Reyes, Cid, History in the Brewing: A Centennial Celebration of San Miguel Beer, Manila: Larawan Books, 1994, 167 p.

Reyes, Rexie, "San Miguel Puts Cojuangco Back in Driver's Seat," Asian Wall Street Journal, July 8, 1998, p. 1.

"San Miguel Corporation: A Tradition of Leadership," Scientific American, February 1996, p. P22.

Selwyn, Michael, "Honour Is the Watchword," Asian Business, November 1992, pp. 36-37.

------, "The Secrets of San Miguel's Sparkle," Asian Business, November 1992, pp. 28-30.

Shao, Maria, "Andrés Soriano's Battle for San Miguel," Business Week, September 28, 1987, p. 54.

"Strange Brew," Economist, May 16, 1998, pp. 64-65.

Tiglao, Rigoberto, "Back in Business: Philippine Tycoon Cojuangco Gears Up for a Comeback," Far Eastern Economic Review, July 2, 1998, pp. 56-57.

------, "Hard Sell," Far Eastern Economic Review, January 22, 1998, p. 60.

------, "Loss Leader," Far Eastern Economic Review, July 2, 1998, pp. 57-58.

------, "Storm Brewing: Philippine Beer Barons Fight Proxy Battle in Congress," Far Eastern Economic Review, June 20, 1996, p. 58.

------, "Sun Sets on an Empire: Strategic Errors Leave the Sorianos' San Miguel Vulnerable," Far Eastern Economic Review, May 11, 1989, pp. 64+.

Williamson, Hugh, "Cronyism Crackdown Targets Estrada Associates: Head of San Miguel Feels the Heat from New President of the Philippines," Financial Times, March 28, 2001, p. 33.

— April Dougal Gasbarre; Updated by David E. Salamie


Wikipedia on Answers.com:

San Miguel Corporation

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San Miguel Corporation
Type Holding Company
(Public)
Traded as (PSE: SMC SMCB)
Founded Manila, Philippines (1890)
Headquarters 40 San Miguel Avenue, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
Key people Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr., chairman
Ramón S. Ang, president
Revenue USD11.038 billion (increase (2010)
Net income USD460 million (decrease10%) (2010) [1]
Website www.sanmiguel.com.ph
San Miguel Pale Pilsen, SMC's Trademark Product

Established in 1890 as a brewery, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) is Southeast Asia's largest publicly listed food, beverage and packaging company with over 17,000 employees in over 100 major facilities throughout the Asia-Pacific.

San Miguel carries many brand names in the Philippine food and beverage industry, including San Miguel Pale Pilsen, Ginebra San Miguel, Monterey, Magnolia, and Purefoods. San Miguel Beer is one of the largest selling beers and among the top selling 10 beer brands in the world.

SMC manufacturing operations extend beyond its home market to Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia; and its products are exported to 60 markets around the world.

Contents

History

Early years

San Miguel's old Manila brewery.

In 1889, a well-known Manila businessman, Don Enrique Noreal de Ycaza y Esteban applied for a royal grant from Spain to brew beer in the Philippines. He was awarded the grant for a period of twenty years and on 29 September (the Feast Day of St. Michael the Archangel) the following year, La Fabrica de Cerveza de San Miguel was declared open for business. Located at 6 Calzada de Malacañang (later called Avilés), the brewery took its name from the district to which it belonged, San Miguel. The facility had two sections: one devoted to the production of ice with a daily capacity of 5 tonnes, and the other to beer production.

The brewery was the first in Southeast Asia using the most modern equipment and facilities of the day. With 70 employees, the plant produced 3,600 hectolitres (about 47,000 cases) of lager beer during the first year and subsequently produced other types of beer, notably Cerveza Negra, Eagle Extra Stout and Doble Bock.

Early success led to the expansion of the business and Barretto decided to incorporate his brewery. On 6 June 1893, the company was incorporated and registered with a capital of P180,000. Those forming the corporation were Don Pedro P. Roxas y Castro, Don Gonzalo Tuazón y Patiño, Don Vicente D. Fernández y Castro, Don Albino Goyenechea, Benito Legarda y Tuazón, the heirs of Don Mariano Buenaventura y Chuidan and Barretto.

Don Pedro P. Roxas was soon appointed manager, playing a prominent role in the development of the firm. Don Pedro was the active member of the firm until 1896 when he left for Europe. Prior to his departure, he bought from Don Enrique Barretto, a share of his interest in the firm worth P42,000. When Barretto retired in May of the same year, Don Pedro through his attorneys bought the balance of Barretto’s stake in the business.

In 1895, San Miguel beer won its first of many awards as a product of the highest quality at the Exposición Regional de Filipinas. By 1896, San Miguel beer was outselling by more than five-to-one all imported beers in the country.

The 1900s ushered in a period of post-colonial prosperity. Demand for beer increased. For San Miguel, under the leadership of Don Pedro Roxas, modernisation included the installation of electric conveyors and automatic machines. Much of the brewery’s equipment was modernized in 1910.

By 1913, imported beer represented only 12% of the total consumption in the Philippines; San Miguel held a 88% share of the industry.

Don Pedro Roxas died in Paris in 1913. His death, following so soon after the deaths of Don Benito Legarda and Don Gonzalo Tuazon, made it advisable to change the form of the company from a firm of co-participants to a corporation. A son of Don Pedro Roxas, Don Antonio R. Roxas, was appointed president, with Don Enrique Brías de Coya and Don Ramón J. Fernández as managers.

By 1914, San Miguel had branched out into the exporting business and its products had found ready markets in such neighbouring ports as Hong Kong, Shanghai and Guam. When WW I broke out, exports came to a temporary halt because of the difficulties brought about by the war, such as shortage of raw materials and the consequent rise in manufacturing costs. It was not until prohibition was repealed in the United States that San Miguel was able to resume exporting to Guam and later to Honolulu.

By the end of 1914, Don Enrique Brías de Coya, after seeing that his efforts and industry had resulted in to a progressive and prosperous business, retired from active business life in favor of his son, Don Antonio Brías Roxas. In 1918, Don Antonio R. Roxas resigned from his position as president. Don Ramon J. Fernández assumed the presidency and Don Andrés Soriano, nephew of Don Antonio R. Roxas, was made acting manager. In 1923, Don Andrés was appointed manager and together with Don Antonio Brías managed the house of San Miguel with constantly increasing success.

Enter the Sorianos: 1918 to 1963

Andrés Soriano y Roxas has first joined San Miguel as a clerk in the accounting department. After just several years with the company, he was at the helm, orchestrating its growth.

An ad that appeared in the Jan. 17, 1924 edition of the Manila-based Spanish-language satirical magazine Aray.

Diversification into new lines of business began in the 1920’s. The company opened in 1922 the Royal Soft Drinks Plant in Manila producing Royal TruOrange, other Royal products and aerated water. (In 1919, the company acquired the Oriental Brewery and Ice Co., transformed the building into an ice plant and cold storage; later the Royal Soft Drinks Plant.)

Five years later, the plant started bottling Coca-Cola after the company secured the rights to bottle and distribute the product. In 1925, San Miguel went into the ice cream business with the purchase of the Magnolia Plant on Avilés which, one year later, was transferred to a new site on Echague, Quiapo District, Manila. The new site used to house the Fábrica de Hielo de Manila which was bought by San Miguel in 1924. To achieve greater self-sufficiency in its operations, the firm opened a new plant in 1930 to produce carbon dioxide for its soft drinks products and dry ice for the refrigeration needs of its ice cream products. In 1932, a plant was set up to produce compressed yeast for bakeries and medical use. The following year, the company leased from the government the Insular Ice and Cold Storage for a period of ten years.

During the 1930s, San Miguel began investing in businesses overseas. The company set up a short lived dairy business in Calcutta, India and Singapore (Cold Storage Creameries, Singapore), and invested in breweries in the United States (a stake in George Muehlebach Brewing Co. and majority holdings in the Lone Star Brewing Co. located in San Antonio, Texas).

In 1931, the management of the company was reorganized along the lines of corporations in the United States. San Miguel's management team was made up of the board of directors (president, vice-president, treasurer and nine directors and the executive officers of the corporation). Don Ramón J. Fernández was elected president of the board of directors and Don Antonio Roxas y Gargollo, son of Don Antonio R. Roxas, was elected vice-president. Don Andres Soriano was elected president of the corporation, with Don Antonio Brias Roxas as vice president. Don Eduardo Roxas, another son of Don Antonio R. Roxas, and Don Jacobo Zóbel were appointed directors. (Don Jacobo Zóbel was first cousin to Don Andrés Soriano and the Roxases).

Expanding and modernising the company, however, meant diluting family control. San Miguel was the first Filipino company to be owned by thousands of shareholders. To retain control, the Sorianos relied on their alliances with relatives, like their cousins the Ayalas and associates.

Before World War II broke out, San Miguel had built a glass factory in Paco and the Cebu Royal plant, its first installation outside Luzon. When the war reached the Philippines, Soriano was commissioned as a colonel and served as an aide to General Douglas MacArthur. One of the first Filipino brewmasters was Dominador San Diego Santos, a chemist from Obando, Bulacán.[1]

After the war, San Miguel rebuilt and mounted a large scale expansion program. The company acquired and modernized a second brewery in Polo, Bulacán in 1947. Two years later, five other plants were opened: the Manila glass plant in Farola, a carbon dioxide plant in Otis, a carton plant, the Iloílo Coca-Cola plant and the Farola power plant. Exports of San Miguel Pale Pilsen resumed. New soft drink plants followed in Davao and Naga.

In 1953 Soriano signed the so-called "Manila Agreement" which allowed the Spanish beer brewing subsidiary La Segarra to brew and sell beer under the San Miguel brand. This company, which was later renamed as San Miguel Fábricas de Cerveza y Malta, was a separate, independent company that had exclusive rights to use the San Miguel beer brand in Europe.[2]

Growth and expansion: 1964 to 1984

A new era dawned in the 1960s, signaled by a new corporate name (the company's name was shortened to San Miguel Corporation), a new head office along Ayala Avenue in Makati and Soriano's death in 1964.

At the time of his death, Soriano had parlayed his family's vast San Miguel fortune into mining, dairies, factories, a newspaper and a radio station. He had investments in Philippine Airlines, held the largest Coca-Cola franchise, and owned five insurance agency distributorships, a Kansas City brewery that made Lone Star and Colt 45, gold mines in British East Africa and a development company in Spain.

Antonio Roxas was elected chairman of San Miguel and Andrés Soriano, Jr. became president in 1964.

Soriano, Jr. has been credited with instituting modern management theory, including decentralisation along product lines.

The Mandaue complex was inaugurated in 1967, and the Mandaue brewery and glass plant commenced operations a year later. In 1973, San Miguel sales exceeded a billion pesos for the first time and profits topped the hundred-million-peso mark.

A new corporate logo was adopted in 1975. The escudo, the symbol of the royal grant, was retained for beer, its original grantee.

Soriano Jr. continued to diversify the food business during the early 1980s, expanding into poultry production in 1982, building an ice cream plant in 1983 and adding shrimp processing and freezing in 1984.

San Miguel encountered its first major competitor in the beer market in the late 1970s. That was when Asia Brewery Inc. entered the segment. The rivalry between Asia Brewery and San Miguel came to a head in 1988, when Asia Brewery cannily introduced a bargain-priced "brand" called, simply, "Beer." (Asia Brewery also called the brand as "Beer na Beer").The imported product looked and tasted like its primary competitor, playing upon the fact that in the Philippines, the San Miguel brand was synonymous with "beer." It was a creative counter to San Miguel's notoriously aggressive and sometimes cutthroat competitive strategy, which had reportedly included "attempts to sabotage Asia Brewery's sales network and smash its empty bottles." Asia Brewery even hired away San Miguel's brewmaster.

At that time, The Brewery buildings in San Miguel District were demolished upon transfer to the Philippine Government as property of Malacañang Palace. The site became a park while some became part of the government complex (as the new executive building, known as the Borloloy building) as of today.

In 1983, San Miguel sold its minority interest in the Spanish company. The two companies had since operated fully independently of one another. San Miguel, Fábricas de Cerveza y Malta, SA, however, still sported a logo similar to its Philippine counterpart. The Spanish company enjoyed success wit San Miguel in its home market. Also, it was the number one Spanish beer exported throughout Europe. Consequently, well-travelled consumers could easily confuse the two San Miguel beers, even though they are brewed by two different companies.[2]

Turbulence: 1984 to 1986

Soriano Jr.'s administration also witnessed battles for corporate control. A thorny issue of management transparency broke the Sorianos' longstanding alliance with the Zóbel-Ayala clan. The result was a historical corporate battle that resulted in the loss of effective control by both the Sorianos and Zóbels of San Miguel. Both families were related to each other through the line of Pedro Pablo Roxas.

In 1983, Enrique Zóbel, a wealthy cousin of the Sorianos who owned the Zobel-Ayala real estate and banking group and was vice chairman of the San Miguel board, instigated a takeover on his own. The seeds of the "family feud" lay in the refusal of the Soriano-led management to share corporate information with Zóbel, especially regarding contracts that SMC management was entering into with companies under the A. Soriano group. The Sorianos viewed Zobel as a competitor, while Zobel (holding nearly 20% of SMC stake) viewed the Sorianos (with about 7%) as mismanaging the company and engaging in sweetheart deals.

Unable to oust Soriano Jr., Zóbel sold his group's 19.5-percent stake to Eduardo Cojuangco, Jr., a resourceful businessman and an astute political adviser of then President Ferdinand Marcos. Cojuangco's Coconut Industry Investment Fund (a.k.a., United Coconut Planters Bank) accumulated an additional 31 percent of San Miguel, giving him effective control of the conglomerate and leaving the Soriano family with a mere 3 percent. Funds used by Cojuangco to acquire Zobel's stake came from levies imposed by the Marcos dictatorship on coconut farmers. The Supreme Court has declared such levies to be public funds and therefore any assets bought using these funds are owned by coconut farmers.

When Soriano Jr. died of cancer in 1984, Cojuangco scooped up the chairmanship of San Miguel in 1984. That same year, San Miguel moved to a new head office in Mandaluyong.

Cojuangco brought coconut oil milling and refining operations into San Miguel's portfolio. His reign, however, was cut short when Marcos was toppled in 1986.

After the People Power Revolution in 1986, Corazón Aquino, Cojuangco's estranged cousin, became president of the Philippines. Aquino rode on the crest of widespread public outrage over the assassination of her husband, Benigno Aquino, Jr., in 1983. One of the people she blamed for her husband's death was Cojuangco, who fled on the same private jet as Marcos to Hawaii in 1986.

The Aquino administration sequestered Cojuangco's stake in San Miguel and agreed to let Soriano Jr.'s son, Andrés Soriano III, run the company although the Soriano family's holdings had by then dwindled to a mere 1 percent.

Soriano III launched a campaign to reclaim the family legacy, but when he tried to buy back the abandoned shares, he was blocked by the Aquino administration's Presidential Commission on Good Government. The PCGG assumed control (but not legal ownership) of the 51.4-percent stake and refused to relinquish it. The government asserted that the stake had been illegally obtained.

In the 1970s, Marcos imposed a tax on the production of coconuts, a major Philippine cash crop, with the proceeds supposed to fund that industry's development. It was alleged, however, that the money was funneled into the Cojuangco-controlled United Coconut Planters Bank, and that Cojuangco then used much of the funds to help him purchase his controlling stake in San Miguel. The controlling interest carried nine of San Miguel's 15 directors seats with it.

The PCGG continued to tend its San Miguel stake into the early 1990s, but it acceded de facto control of the conglomerate to Soriano III via a management contract with his A. Soriano Corp.

Soriano III continued the company's program of expansion, acquiring majority control of La Tondeña Distillers Inc., the leading producer of hard liquor in the Philippines, in 1987 and adding beef and pork production to the company's food operations in 1988.

Internationalisation: 1986 to 1998

Soriano III embarked on an ambitious internationalization program, hoping to expand into other countries and mitigate the effects of the Philippines' unstable economy. He also wanted to head off encroaching competition from the world's biggest breweries, namely Anheuser-Busch and Miller of the United States, Kirin of Japan, and BSN of France.

Soriano III allocated $1 billion to a five-year strategic internationalization program that focused on shaping up domestic operations, then progressing to licensing and exporting, overseas production, and finally to distribution of non-beer products.

A subsequent decentralisation created a holding company structure, with 18 non-beer operations positioned as subsidiaries. This corporate reorganization freed the spun off businesses from the bureaucratic shackles of a large conglomerate. In the course of this multifaceted effort to attain optimum efficiency, San Miguel reduced its workforce by more than 16 percent, from a 1989 high of 39,138 to 32,832 by 1993.

With its domestic "ducks in a row," San Miguel turned to the next stage in its internationalization, beer licensing and exporting initiative. Although the company had exported beer for most of its history, this effort was intensified dramatically in the late 1980s. San Miguel's beer exports grew by 150 percent from 1985 to 1989 alone, and the brand was soon exported to 24 countries, including all of Asia's key markets as well as the United States, Australia, and the Middle East.

Once the core brand was established in a particular market, San Miguel would begin to create production facilities, sometimes on an independent basis and sometimes in concert with an indigenous joint-venture partner. By 1995, San Miguel had manufacturing plants in Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, and had licensing partners in Taiwan, Guam and Nepal.

Thus, in spite of the overarching quarrel regarding San Miguel's ownership (not to mention other problems endemic to operating in the Philippines), the company's sales quintupled from P12.23 billion in 1986 to P68.43 billion by 1994. Net income increased twice as fast, from P1.11 billion to P 11.86 billion over the same period, although San Miguel's overseas operations (as a whole) were not yet profitable.

In 1996 San Miguel purchased full control of its Hong Kong arm, San Miguel Brewery Hong Kong Ltd. In April of the following year, San Miguel's domestic soft-drink bottling unit, Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc., was merged into the Australia-based Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd. In effect, San Miguel exchanged its 70-percent interest in a Philippine-only operation for a 25-percent stake in CCA, which had operations in 17 countries. CCA soon demerged the latter operations into a UK-based firm called Coca-Cola Beverages plc (resulting in a reduction of San Miguel's stake in CCA to 22 percent).

From 1995 through 1997, San Miguel suffered a downturn in its main domestic businesses, while overseas operations were still in the red. Profits plummeted. In response, a major restructuring of the company's loss-making food businesses was undertaken. San Miguel's ice cream and pasteurized milk business was merged with the operations of Nestlé to form Nestlé Philippines Inc., and late in 1998 San Miguel's stake in this business was sold off. San Miguel also exited from the ready-to-eat meal sector and curtailed the operations of its shrimp farming business.

By late 1997, the company was also beginning to feel the effects of the Asian economic crisis.

A new Cojuangco era

András Soriano III resigned in July 1998 and Eduardo M. Cojuangco, Jr. was elected chairman of San Miguel Corporation. Francisco C. Eizmendi, Jr. stayed as president and Ramón S. Ang was elected vice-chairman in January 1999. Ang would later be appointed president and chief operating officer following the retirement of Eizmendi in 2002.

Confronted by greater competitive pressures as a result of the 1997 financial crisis, the pace of change quickened for San Miguel upon Cojuangco's return. Amid an extremely difficult operating environment, working toward configuring the corporation to have better response to the highly competitive climate of the time. The immediate goals upon assuming leadership was to ease the burden of the spiraling interest expense, pursue new strategic alliances to strengthen the business--particularly in the international arena--and strengthen its profitability and financial standing to position the company for new opportunities. Progress was made on reducing costs, improving productivity and generating cash flow.

Having installed a critical mass of brewing capacity in China, Indonesia and Vietnam, the new management decided to continue the company’s investments in these areas, aggressively focusing on brand and volume building initiatives, most especially in China. San Miguel revamped the selling and distribution organization resulting in higher distribution efficiency, improved coverage of key accounts, greater pricing stability and reduced overall costs. In China, the company chose to focus on growth markets while still reaching close to 30 cities. Where in the past, it had primarily concentrated on the premium market it then aggressively pushed its medium and low-end brands.

By the end of 1998, shuffling assets to find the ideal portfolio and looking to restructure our operations and focus on our core competencies, Cojuangco sold San Miguel's stake in Coca-Cola Beverages, Coca-Cola Amatil’s bottler in Europe, along with SMC's 45% stake in Nestlé Philippines. The sale of both Coca-Cola Beverages and Nestle was part of the new management’s effort to restructure the San Miguel Group and focus its technological, managerial and financial strengths to ventures where it believed it could add the most value. A number of management changes were made in conjunction with a rightsizing program.

Management layers were flattened to restore the company to fighting trim. In May, the San Miguel Brewing International regional headquarters was transferred from Hongkong to Manila and to reduce overhead expenses, the employees of SMBIL were repatriated. The organisational streamlining was meant to configure San Miguel to enable it to better respond to the competitive climate. The goal was to speed up decision-making and have a flatter and more dynamic organisation, one that was more efficient and more responsive to the market. The group-wide logistics and purchasing functions were realigned at the corporate level. The Food Group, La Tondeña Distillers and the international operations were recapitalized. Metro Bottled Water Corp., manufacturers of Wilkins Distilled Water, was acquired. In February 2001, San Miguel once again regained control of Coca-Cola Bottlers Philippines, Inc. Shortly after, San Miguel acquired the Ayala Company's PureFoods, becoming the undisputed market leader in the Philippines’ fast growing food industry, owning two-thirds of the refrigerated/processed meat market, and over a third of the poultry and feeds industries.

Cojuangco and Ang have also been on an international shopping spree. In the past three years, San Miguel has bought six companies in four nearby countries. In 2004, it boosted international sales to 13 percent of total revenues from 10 percent the previous year.

San Miguel's first major acquisition under Cojuangco and Ang was Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000.

San Miguel paid $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd. and $35.5 million for food processor TTC (Vietnam) Co. in 2003. In 2004,it bought 51 percent of Berri Ltd., Australia's top juicemaker, for $97.9 million.

To shore up its war chest, San Miguel took in Japanese brewer Kirin Brewery Co. Ltd., which bought a 15-percent stake in San Miguel, for $540 million in 2002.

In 2005, the company made its biggest overseas acquisition with the takeover of National Foods Ltd., Australia's largest publicly traded dairy, which it bought for P80.38 billion. That was followed later in the year with its $420-million purchase of Singapore-based Del Monte Pacific Ltd., the region's largest pineapple canner.

San Miguel has merged National Foods' operation with Berri.

In 2006, San Miguel has sold its 65% stake at its Coca-Cola Philippine venture (including its subsidiaries Cosmos Bottling and Philippine Beverage Partners) to The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) for $590 million.

In November 2007, SMC sold Boag's to Lion Nathan for A$325 million. The same month, SMC also sold National Foods to Kirin for ¥294 billion.[3]

While the global financial meltdown of 2008-2009 sent many companies into full retreat, San Miguel Corporation powered ahead, investing mightily in a strategy to reaccelerate growth and improve margins.

Under the leadership of Cojuangco and Ang, the company has undergone a major strategic shift, streamlining and broadening its business portfolio, reshaping and redefining the very nature of its core businesses. While the company has significantly expanded its participation in its core business of food, beverage and packaging through regional acquisitions and integration, it has also made inroads into the power, mining, petroleum, infrastructure and telecommunication industries.

In rapid succession beginning late 2008, SMC bought up shares in power retailer Meralco, paid up for the option to own oil refiner Petron, and acquired a majority stake in Liberty Holdings, a Filipino telco co-owned by Qatar Telecom.

Forays into infrastructure have also been successful, with San Miguel now participating in several large-scale projects. Phase 1 of the P19 billion, 88.5 kilometre two-lane Tarlac Pangasinan La Unión Expressway began April 2010 and will take two-and-a-half years to complete. TPLEX is the first of two road projects that Ang has on stream. In October 2010, SMC finalised a deal to acquire 51% interest in Universal LRT Corp. Ltd., the company in charge of developing the Metro Rail Transit Line 7 (MRT7). To Ang, the need for significant infrastructure development throughout the Philippines represents an important growth opportunity for San Miguel, not just for profit, but a chance to contribute to nation-building.

San Miguel’s energy and power portfolio is just as impressive. In a relatively short period, the company’s energy subsidiary San Miguel Energy has become the largest power producer in Luzón and a state-of-the-art platform on which we can further build our power business. Already, San Miguel Energy and its umbrella unit, San Miguel Global Power Holdings, is an important engine for growth for San Miguel Corporation, capable of yielding for us double-digit returns annually. Mining is another industry that Ang has been keen to enter. In early October 2010, SMC bought a little over a tenth of Australia’s Indophil Resources, NL, a company which owns a 37.5% stake in the Tampakan copper-gold project which covers the provinces of South Cotabato, Davao del Sur, and Sultan Kudarat and has a total resource estimate of 2.4 billion tonnes. Estimated at US$5.2 billion, the Tampakan mining project is the Philippines’ largest.

Businesses and products

San Miguel Brewery, Inc.

San Miguel Brewery, Inc. manufactures and distributes San Miguel Beer Pale Pilsen, the Philippines' best selling beer and a leading brand in Hong Kong and South China. The tradename San Miguel, is from the District of San Miguel in Manila. It is one of the world’s top-selling beers. Its portfolio of nine beer products includes San Miguel Beer Pale Pilsen, San Miguel Light, San Miguel All Premium Malt, San Miguel Super Dry, San Miguel Strong Ice, Red Horse Extra Strong Beer, Gold Eagle, San Miguel Draft and "Cerveza Negra."

San Miguel also produces a wide range of products that are runaway market leaders in their product categories. "Anker Bir" is the second largest-selling beer brand in Indonesia.[citation needed]

Ginebra San Miguel, Inc.

Ginebra San Miguel, Inc. was incorporated in 1902 by Carlos Palanca Sr. as La Tondeña Incorporada. San Miguel acquired a 70-percent stake in the company in 1987 and renamed it La Tondeña Distillers Inc. Under San Miguel, La Tondeña ventured into the bottled water and fruit juice businesses and became a publicly listed corporation. In 2003, the company's name was again changed to Ginebra San Miguel Inc.

Ginebra San Miguel's main brand, Ginebra San Miguel, is currently the largest-selling gin brand in the world, with 22 bottles consumed every second in the Philippines.[citation needed] The company also makes the Gran Matador brandy, "Infinit" ready-to-drink alcohol mixes, Tondeña Premium rum, GSM Blue variant and the Vino Kulafu Chinese wine.

San Miguel-Purefoods Co. Inc.

San Miguel-Pure Foods Company, Inc. is the largest Filipino-owned food company, with nearly 3,000 employees deployed in a broad nationwide network of offices, farms, manufacturing, processing and distribution facilities. The Company was formed by acquiring the stocks of the Ayala's Purefoods-Hormel Company. Purefoods then was one of the competitors of San Miguel before its Acquisition.

It holds in its portfolio the names of some of the most formidable brands in the Philippine food industry, among them, Magnolia, Pure Foods, Monterey, Star and Dari Crème. B-Meg and Pure Blend is the market-leaders in the animal feeds industry.

San Miguel Pure Foods' integrated operations range from breeding, contract growing, processing and marketing of chicken, pork and beef to the manufacture of refrigerated, canned and ready-to-cook meat products, butter, cheese, margarine, oils and fats, as well as animal and aquatic feeds.

San Miguel Packaging Products

San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corporation produce packaging formats, servicing many of the region’s leading food, pharmaceutical, chemical and personal care manufacturers. The company serves clients in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Australia among other foreign markets.

SMYPC also manufactures corrugated cartons, flexible packaging, plastic crates and pallets, metal closures and two-piece aluminum cans.

In China, the company produces glass containers and plastic crates, pallets and metal crowns for the domestic and export markets. SMYPC also manages a plastic crate plant in Indonesia and a glass and metal crown facility in Vietnam. In Malaysia, SMYPC operates four facilities that produce flexible packaging, plastic films, woven products and radiant barriers for higher-value and high-tech industries such as electronics, health care and logistics firms.


San Miguel Properties, Inc.

Initially established in 1990 as San Miguel’s corporate real estate arm. Its current portfolio of projects include mixed-use developments, with economy to middle-income housing as its core products. Among its real estate development projects: Bel Aldea, Maravilla, and Muralla in Cavite and Wedgewoods in Sta. Rosa Laguna. In the works is San Francisco Laketown, a development right in Cavite. San Miguel Properties’ has also launched the Monte Maria project as a Catholic pilgrimage site. Situated in Alfonso, Cavite.

Divisions and subsidiaries

San Miguel Brewery, Inc.

  • San Miguel Brewery Hong Kong Ltd.
  • Guangzhou San Miguel Brewery Co. Ltd.
  • San Miguel Baoding Brewery Co. Ltd.
  • San Miguel Brewery Vietnam Ltd.
  • San Miguel Beer Thailand Ltd.
  • San Miguel Marketing Thailand Ltd.
  • PT Delta Djakarta Tbk

Ginebra San Miguel, Inc.

Vega Telecom Inc.

  • Bell Telecommunications (BellTel)
  • Eastern Communications (ETPI/Eastern Telecom)
  • Liberty Telecoms Holdings Inc. (39.3% ownership)
  • wi-tribe Philippines (partnership with Qtel)

Other businesses

  • Anchor Insurance Brokerage Corp.
  • San Miguel Properties, Inc.
  • SMC Stock Transfer Service Corp.
  • SMITS Inc.
  • San Miguel Holdings Inc.
  • San Miguel Shipping & Lighterage Corp.
  • ArchEn Technologies Inc.
  • Bank of Commerce (34.3% ownership)
  • Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) (27% ownership)

Basketball teams

Shareholders

Owners of more than 3% of the Company's voting securities as of March 17, 2006 were as follows:

  • Government controlled institutions acting as shareholders after the Marcos regime.

See also

References

External links


 
 

 

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