Richmond Mercurio – The Philippine Star, September 9, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Gokongwei-led food and beverage company Universal Robina Corp. (URC) is exploring the possibility of putting up a new P400-million animal feed milling plant in Mindanao to cater to growing demand.
The facility, if pursued, will be URC Agro-Industrial Group (AIG)’s first plant in Mindanao.
“Every year, we’re expanding slowly. We started in Luzon. We went north in Bulacan, then we’re also heavy in Visayas in particular. This year or the next two years, we’re looking at Mindanao,” URC-AIG managing director Vincent Henry Go told The STAR.
“Now that the market is really booming, agriculturally-wise, I think Mindanao is a good venue,” Go said.
Go said that no firm plan has been made yet on the potential Mindanao expansion, but indicated that the project will potentially be “more of the hog feed line.”
“It’s not on the board yet, but if we grow there using the Visayas facilities, possibly we can put up a plant there (in Mindanao) also,” Go said.
“Once we pull the trigger, minimum investment there is P300 million to P400 million,” he said.
AIG is a division under the larger agro-industrial and commodities group of URC, which also includes the sugar and renewables group as well as the flour and pasta division.
AIG, on its own, operates three divisions — farms, animal nutrition and health as well as food, drugs and disinfectants.
Its Uno+ Hog feeds have proven to be the most efficient hog feed in the country for hog raisers nationwide, while TopBreed has established itself as one of the market leader in the Philippines under the dog food brand segment.
URC’s animal nutrition and health segment focuses on animal nutrition through its core animal feeds business, complemented by the expansion of its pet food portfolio and its drugs and disinfectants business.
The segment contributed approximately 7.4 percent of URC’s revenues for the first half.
Among its existing feed mill plants are located in Bulacan, Pasig as well as Consolacion and Mandaue City in Cebu.
Last December, URC bolstered by more than half its production capacity for quality flour with the opening of a new mill in Quezon province.
The company’s P5.4-billion facility in Sariaya raised URC Flour’s capacity to about 3,500 metric tons daily from 2,180 MT per day.
URC is one of the Philippines’ largest food and beverage companies, producing iconic brands such as Great Taste, C2 Cool & Clean, Piattos, Maxx candy and Cream-O cookies.
