Century Pacific eyes ‘mid-teen’ growth in 2025

CENTURY PACIFIC FOOD, Inc. seeks mid-teen growth in profit and revenue this year as it boosts production capacity.

“We always try to go for double-digit growth,” Century Pacific Chief Operations Officer Gregory Francis H. Banzon told reporters on the sidelines of a forum in Pasay City last week. “Mid-teens is always our objective, both for top line and bottom line.”

He noted that the company had consistently hit 13% sales and income growth. “We try to best that in a consistent level…Some years are better than the others, but when you average it out, it’s somewhere within that mid-teen level.”

Century Pacific’s net income for the first nine months of 2024 rose 14% to P5.3 billion from a year earlier, while sales improved 13% to P56.9 billion on better exports and branded segments. The company has yet to disclose its full-year 2024 financial results.

This year, Mr. Banzon said the company is allotting about P3 billion in capital expenditure (capex), which will be used to boost its production capacity in the tuna, coconut and pet food segments.

“It is going to be mostly on capacity expansion, particularly to be able to sustain the growth of our tuna business,” he said. “We’re also seeing a surge in demand in the coconut product space. Obviously, maintenance is always key for us to run efficiently.”

“Last year, we were a little north of P3 billion (capex). But there’s still carryover of some of that,” he added.

In September, Century Pacific announced a $40-million (P2.3 billion) investment to acquire full ownership of Coco Harvest, Inc., which operates a coconut processing facility in Misamis Occidental. The plant can produce coconut water, coconut milk, desiccated coconut and virgin coconut oil.

Meanwhile, Mr. Banzon said the company cut the prices of several products such as canned meat, tuna and sardines.

“As commodity prices corrected, we looked at the key stock keeping units that drive the business and tried to look for opportunities to ease the burden of the consumer,” he said.

Century Pacific stocks fell 40 centavos to close at P37.60 each on March 28. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave