Coca-Cola FEMSA Philippines, local arm of Coca-Cola’s franchise bottler Coca-Cola Femsa S.A.B. de C.V., will pour an additional US$500 million worth of investments and upgrades into its local operations next year.
“[The investment] will be used for the distribution centers in Mindanao, market assets–these are bottles, coolers and cases–and the development of the market that needs investment in sari-sari stores and in our retailers,” Asia division corporate affairs director Juan Dominguez of Coca-Cola FEMSA said on the sidelines of the inauguration of the company’s Canlubang plant expansion on November 3.
Dominguez added that as its Luzon operations grow, Coca-Cola FEMSA expects the Visayas and Mindanao operations to follow suit.
For Mindanao, Coca-Cola FEMSA will be expanding its distribution network in Zamboanga, General Santos, Davao City, Cagayan de Oro, and Misamis Oriental. As for Visayas, more distribution outlets will be set up in Bacolod, Cebu, and Iloilo.
In his speech during the inauguration, President Benigno Aquino III said the additional funds will bring the firm’s total investments in the country to $1.7 billion by 2015.
Aquino noted that Coca-Cola has already surpassed its pledge of $1 billion worth of investments in the country within five years from 2010.
He said Coca-Cola FEMSA Philippines, together with Coca-Cola Export Corp., has so far invested over $511 million in the country, on top of the $700-million acquisition of 51% of Coca-Cola Philippines in January of 2013, for a total of over $1.2 billion in investments.
These funds, Aquino pointed out, went to the rehabilitation of the Tacloban plant, upgrade of the Misamis Oriental plant, acquisition of a new facility in Davao del Sur, and expansion of the Canlubang plant.
Expansion of the 15-year-old Canlubang manufacturing facility includes establishing additional facilities on its 3.3-hectare property, which remains as one of the largest manufacturing facilities of Coca-Cola in the Philippines.
The facility now has nine bottling lines, increasing the plant’s total annual capacity to 265 million physical cases from a previous annual capacity of 170 million, as well as three new PET lines, considered the fastest bottling lines in the world.
Coca-Cola is bullish about growth prospects in the Philippines, according to Dominguez, noting that the country is the fastest growing in per capita consumption of soft drinks, comprising 20% of Coca-Cola FEMSA’s volume sales.
“We believe firmly in the Philippines and capturing the growth of the Philippines,” Dominguez said.
“It is the fastest expanding market in Asia and Filipinos are consistently loving our brand for many years. We want to expand our presence in the market geographically and with the products distributed as well,” Dominguez added.
Coca-Cola FEMSA currently operates 22 plants and 47 sales offices nationwide and employs 8,000 workers.
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