SAN Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB) will be opening a new brewery, its second in Mindanao, next year in Barangay Sta. Ana, Tagoloan town, Misamis Oriental.
SMB President Roberto Huang said the brewery will be built in a 54-hectare area and is expected to generate at least a thousand jobs especially in its construction phase.
"Definitely, most workers will be coming from this town. Maybe we can generate more than a thousand jobs, especially in the construction phase, which we want to be finished fast," Huang said.
"We will be hiring mostly engineers, so I urge the people here to take courses like engineering, we need particularly, chemical engineers, chemists, electrical engineers," he added.
The company is set to spend P6 billion for the construction which is expected to be completed in less than two years, and will have a full capacity of three million hectoliters.
The last brewery SMB built was the Davao Brewery in 1995.
Huang said the demand of San Miguel products has been remarkable and is continuing to break records.
"We are putting up the second brewery here in Misamis Oriental because we believe it is strategic, and it is instrumental in our vision as we lead the brewery industry. This move signifies that as our business grows, so is our contribution to the development in the countryside," Huang said.
"We only have one plant in Mindanao, and Mindanao is a very big land, the beer that we are selling now in North Mindanao are coming from Mandaue in Cebu City and Davao, so we really need to expand now that the demand is higher," he said.
Huang said one of the factors that made them decide to put up a plant here is the town's good water source.
In January this year, San Miguel Corporation President and Chief Operating Officer Ramon Ang announced that the company will be investing in more facilities to grow its core businesses.
Apart from building the new plant, SMB is also expanding its existing Santa Rosa, Laguna bottling facility and developing more efficient distribution systems
"As our economy continues to grow, it's important for companies like ours to help bring investments and development to more areas in the Philippines," Ang said.
"Mindanao has always had great growth potential, and we're proud to have established a presence here early on. We have a brewery here as well as a new power generation plant. Hopefully, this new brewery goes a long way in improving the local economy and providing jobs to many of our countrymen here," he added.
For his part, Tagoloan Mayor Heckert Emano said the new brewery is of great help not only to the economy but to the people.
"This will really help us in Tagoloan, and its neighboring towns in terms of employment and other opportunities," Emano said.
"In terms of industrial growth, the town has come a long way, we are also grateful for the Phividec, because they have many locators or companies who want to invest here in our municipality. We assure the SMB the local government's 100 percent support whatever and whenever they need," he added.
SMB is the market leader in the beer industry, holding over 95 percent market share.
The new plant will be the company's 6th brewery, located in Valenzuela, Pampanga, Mandaue, Davao del Sur and Bacolod, and a bottling facility in Santa Rosa, Laguna.