San Miguel Brewery sees light at the end of the dark long tunnel

Philippines is probably one of the worst hit countries in ASEAN by the COVID-19 pandemic aside from Indonesia.
San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB), the beer unit of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., is now looking at sustainable recovery after a slow 1st quarter performance due to the imposition of enhanced community quarantine which stopped all HORECA businesses; liquor ban across the Philippines; together with an increase in excise taxes at the start of 2020.
SMB is implementing programs to recover from the impact of the pandemic, and these include adjustments in operations to adapt to the ‘New Normal’ as well as adjusting to the shifts in consumption patterns, and strengthening demand for beer products through increased product visibility and availability in the right channels and implementing focused sales programs.
SMB reported a net income of Pesos 3.7 billion (US$75 million) in the 1st quarter 2020, down substantially by 44% from Pesos 6.7 billion (US$135.8 million) in the same period last year. SMB’s decline in sales volume is also partly attributed to increase in prices of its beer products in March 2020.
SMB currently has 6 production facilities strategically located across the Philippines to ensure product availability and a distribution system serving 471,000 retail outlets.