San Miguel Corporation

San Miguel Corporation (PSE: SMC) is Southeast Asia's largest publicly listed food, beverage and packaging company as well as the Philippines' largest corporation in terms of revenue, with over 17,000 employees in over 100 major facilities throughout the Asia-Pacific region.

Its flagship product, San Miguel Beer, is one of the largest selling beers and among the top ten selling beer brands in the world. San Miguel's manufacturing operations extend beyond its home market to Hong Kong, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Australia; and its products are exported to 60 markets around the world.

Since 2008, SMC has ventured beyond its core businesses, becoming involved in fuel & oil (Petron Corporation), power generation and infrastructure. It was briefly involved in Philippine Airlines from April 2012 to September 2014.

History

In 1889, a well-known Manila businessman, Don Enrique María Barretto de Ycaza y Esteban, applied for a royal grant from Spain to establish a brewery in the Philippines. He was awarded the grant for a period of twenty years. On September 29, 1890 (Michaelmas, or the feast day of Saint Michael the Archangel), La Fábrica de Cerveza de San Miguel was declared open for business. Located at 6 Calzada de Malacañang (later called Calle Avilés), the brewery took its name from its neighbourhood, the arrabal (suburb or district) of San Miguel. The facility had two sections: one devoted to the production of ice with a daily capacity of 5 tonnes, and the other to beer production. The brewery was the first in Southeast Asia using the most modern equipment and facilities of the day. With 70 employees, the plant produced 3,600 hectolitres (about 47,000 cases) of lager beer during the first year and subsequently produced other types of beer, notably Cerveza Negra, Eagle Extra Stout and Doble Bock.