By Arra B. Francia, Senior Reporter
BUSINESSMAN Rolando B. Hortaleza aims to grow the sales of his food business to P1.5 billion by next year, as he now has more time to focus on the venture following the sale of his personal care company.
Prime Global Corp., Mr. Hortaleza’s new firm that will hold his investments in food, generated P400 million in sales in 2018. This is seen to more than double to P900 million by the end of the year.
“Busy ako sa (personal care) kaya hindi ako naka-focus sa pag-expand ng food… Ngayon pupunta tayo sa commodity market (I was busy with my personal care business so I wasn’t able to focus on expanding food… Now we will go to the commodity market),” Mr. Hortaleza told reporters in an interview on April 29.
Prime Global sells shrimp paste, peanut butter, chicken breading, and other condiments. Mr. Hortaleza said shrimp paste carrying the Barrio Fiesta brand was the firm’s largest growth driver last year, accounting for about 70% of sales.
Mr. Hortaleza noted how 60% of the Barrio Fiesta shrimp paste sales were domestic, while 40% came from international market.
“When I bought Barrio Fiesta, 70% was international. But the idea of growing it, the growth should be coming from the domestic market…We are targeting 80-20 (domestic-international),” he explained.
Mr. Hortaleza said they can achieve the 80-20 target within the next two years.
Prime Global will also be launching three new products this year to further boost sales. These products will be in the high margin category.
Mr. Hortaleza’s food business used to account for only 10% of the sales of Splash Corp., as majority came from the sale of personal care products. This segment, which housed homegrown brands such as Maxi-Peel, Skinwhite, and Vitress, was recently sold to Bangalore-based firm Wipro Consumer Care (WCC) for about P9-11 billion.
WCC’s portfolio includes soaps, toiletries, personal care products, wellness products, electrical wire devices, domestic and commercial lighting, and modular office furniture. It has a presence in the Philippines through perfume brand Enchanteur, which it noted is a market leader in Malaysia, Vietnam, China, and Hong Kong, among others.
Mr. Hortaleza said the transaction will allow Splash to accelerate its expansion in international markets, leveraging on WCC’s footprint to 60 countries, including the Middle East, North African region, and the United Kingdom.
WCC expects Splash to continue its double-digit growth momentum in terms of revenues in the following years, as they aim to achieve synergies in research and new product development, among others.
