San Miguel Corp. and its beer unit San Miguel Brewery (SMB) are planning to build 10 new breweries with an annual capacity of 1-2 million hectoliters each in the next two years. The company is prepared to spend at least $1 billion said San Miguels president Ramon Ang in an interview with Reuters on Wednesday.
The company is responding to the strong demand for its beers in the Philippines, Asia and the rest of the world. Last year the company already announced to build a two million hectoliter brewery on the West coast of the United States (inside.beer, 1.6.2017) to target the 4 million Filipino Americans, which are estimated to live in the US. Mr. Ang confirmed the plans again in an interview this year (inside.beer, 31.5.2018).
Additionally the company wants to build a brewery in Vietnam, where SMB initially showed interest in buying a majority stake in Vietnam’s leading brewer Sabeco but finally let Thai Beverage go ahead in an auction at a record price of $4.84 billion for 54% of the company’s shares. (inside.beer, 18.12.2017).
Undoubtedly most of SMB’s money will be invested in eight breweries which will be build in SMB’s home market, the Philippines. The country has a population of more than 100 million people and is among the fastest-growing economies in the world, even outperforming economies such as China, Vietnam and India. Still the consumption of beer is very low at 10.6 liters per capita in 2017 and leaves enough possibilities for growth. In comparison countries like Thailand (27.9 lpc), China (29.8 lpc) or Vietnam (43.7 lpc) are already far more developed in terms of beer consumption. Beer sales in the Philippines are expected to reach $1.74 billion in 2021 which is a growth rate of about 20% in the next 4 years.
