AEV spending P4b to expand food unit

Conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. plans to spend P4 billion to expand the production capacity of food manufacturing unit Pilmico Foods Corp. from 2017 to 2020.

Pilmico president Sabin Aboitiz said during a recent analysts’ briefing the company aimed to increase the sow level capacity of hog farms to 20,000 heads by 2020 from 14,000 heads at present and raise the output of animal feeds business to 153 tons per hour from 113 TPH.

The company also intends to expand its aqua feeds capacity to 64 TPH by 2020 from 44 TPH by end-2017 and increase the production of ready-to-lay hen to 1 million heads by 2020 from 172,000 heads in 2017.

The group broke ground on several projects including the expansion of meat processing  and feedmill plants and a grains storage facility in Tarlac province.

Aboitiz said the company also recently incorporated a trading office in Indonesia as a part of the thrust to expand within Southeast Asia.

“Asean way in the future is going to be big. When you look at our acquisition in Vietnam, that gave us access to 600 million population. So the opportunities are quite good.  We are excited to expand that,” Aboitiz said.

Pilmico is currently expanding its customer reach in the Association of South East Asian Nations region while diversifying national operations.

Net income contribution of Pilmico went down 25 percent in the first quarter to P292 million from P389 million a year ago.

Feeds and flour businesses reported a drop in net income contributions on lower selling prices and higher raw material and operating costs. Depressed flour prices, higher wheat cost and increase in operating costs dragged flour’s net income for the period to P87 million, down 46 percent from a year ago.

AEV allocated P1.7 billion in capital expenditures for its food manufacturing business in 2017 to support various initiatives for its flour, feeds and farms divisions while pursuing regional opportunities.

Originally posted: www.thestandard.com.ph