The Philippines & Vietnam & USA: San Miguel planning breweries in Vietnam, US
San Miguel Brewery Inc. (SMB) is expanding overseas by investing $70 million in a new brewery in Vietnam and looking for a potential site in the United States for another, The Manila Times reported on May 29.
During a news briefing on May 28, SMB Chairman Ramon Ang said the manufacturing plant that the company was planning to set up in Vietnam was designed to produce 2 million hectolitres of beer.
According to SMB President Roberto Huang, the expansion in Vietnam was in line with efforts to meet the growing demand for beer there.
The firm’s production capacity in the Southeast Asian nation currently stands at 200,000 hl.
“We have a very small brewing capacity in Vietnam. It’s not that competitive,” Huang said.
Also, SMB said it had sent to the US a working group that would study the potential establishment of a new production facility there.
This came two years after it announced plans to put up a $100-million brewery in Los Angeles, California, which was also designed to produce 2 million hl of beer.
“We have to wait for their (the group) confirmation. It’s not just a matter of capacity. We also have to talk to some people there if a brewery can really be put up,” Huang said, adding that it already finalized a land-purchase deal.
Even if the land is secured, Huang said it would take months before his company could break ground in America.
“Normally, the planning alone takes about a minimum of six months. If outside the country, it may even take longer. But we will see if we can already [perform] the ground-breaking,” he added.
Besides Vietnam and the US, SMB also has breweries in mainland China, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Indonesia.
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