LISTED food and beverage producer Monde Nissin Corp. has earmarked P7.55 billion in capital expenditure (capex) for 2025, the bulk of which will be used for a new plant in Northern Luzon.
“We had supply constraints that prevented us from shipping even more,” Monde Nissin Chief Financial Officer Jesse C. Teo told a virtual news briefing last week. “We will try to address this quickly by building a new plant in Northern Luzon for our biscuit business.”
He said P6.6 billion will go to Monde Nissin’s Asia-Pacific business, while P976 million will go to its meat alternative business.
“The bulk of the P6.6 billion that we will be spending for capex in Asia-Pacific will go towards that,” he said, referring to the biscuit plant that he expects would widen their distribution network.
The company’s 2025 capex is 55% higher than a year earlier.
Monde Nissin expects the plant to generate more than P10 billion in sales once fully finished.
“However, we will be phasing it,” Mr. Teo said. “We need both capacity for Graham and SkyFlakes immediately, both for domestic and for international business, so we will prioritize that.”
Mr. Teo said Monde Nissin would also allot capex to cut losses in the company’s meat alternative business.
“We are thinking of infusing cash in order to bring down the borrowing at the meat alternative level to reduce the loss there and to help also the valuation,” he said.
Monde Nissin seeks to hit mid-single digit revenue growth for its Asia-Pacific business, while the profit margin would be “broadly in line” with last year, Monde Nissin Chief Executive Officer Henry Soesanto told the same briefing.
“For our meat alternative, we expect mid-single-digit core earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in [million British pounds] for the year,” he added.
Monde Nissin swung to profitability with a P450-million net income last year from a P626.58-million net loss a year earlier as consolidated revenue rose 3.7% to P83.1 billion.
Sales of its Asia-Pacific business increased 5.4% to P69.5 billion, while revenue of its meat alternative segment dropped 4.5% to P13.59 billion.
Monde Nissin shares closed a centavo lower at P7 each on March 28. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave
