Tanduay stops production at Manila plant

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Tanduay Distillers Inc., largest rum company in the Philippines, announced the decommissioning of its production facility in Quiapo, Manila effective April 1 “to reduce costs.”

In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Thursday, April 4, Lucio Tan-led company said it “believes that its current and anticipated future production requirements can be met through its other remaining facilities, which utilize more modern production technologies and processes.”

It will, however, serve as a backup plant and may be used again when needed. Tanduay has operations in Batangas, Laguna and Negros Occidental.

In the meantime, part of the Manila facility will be renovated to serve as a museum to showcase Tanduay’s products and distilled spirits production methods.

Global expansion

Tanduay has announced way back in 2011 that it is consolidating and expanding its local operations as part of efforts to break into global markets, especially China and US. 

It had raised funds in 2011 to increase the distilling capacity of its Batangas-based plant to 175,000 liters of ethyl alcohol a day from 75,000, as well as the construction of a 30,000-barrel alcohol ageing plant.

It also installed a fully automated washing and bottling facility at its Negros plant that added 20,000 cases daily to the plant’s capacity.

For its Laguna plant, it added new facilities that expanded the bottling line with additional capacity of 14,000 cases per day.

It had announced that about P200 million would be earmarked for the Heritage Museum at the decommissioned Manila plant, as well as early retirement packages to existing employees.

The distillery’s flagship brand is Tanduay Rhum, an alcohol beverage that has its origins dating from 1854. Other brands include Tanduay Five Years, Tanduay ESQ, Rhum G5, Gin Kapitan and Cossack Blue.

The distillery business has been consolidated into LT Group, which puts all of tycoon Lucio Tan’s major businesses — liquor, cigarette manufacturing, real estate and banking -—into a single publicly listed holding firm. – Rappler.com