Philippines' San Miguel Reports Stronger Income

MANILA, Philippines (AP) — San Miguel Corp., the Philippines' largest food and beverage conglomerate, said Thursday strong growth in its beer and liquor units helped boost net income in the first nine months of the year by 173 percent.

The company reported profits of 57 billion pesos ($1.17 billion) during the period.

It said it expects higher sales and consumption for the rest of the year after kicking off its San Miguel Octoberfest marketing campaign in September.

Its liquor unit, Ginebra San Miguel Inc., posted revenues of 14.1 billion pesos ($290.7 million), up 27 percent from 2008. Operating income rose 41 percent to 872 million pesos ($18 million) due to improvements in production and distribution costs, the company said.

Its packaging group posted a 41 percent increase in operating income to 1.4 billion pesos ($29 million) from strong demands for glass, plastic and metal containers.