Century Pacific Food, Inc. (PSE: CNPF) is making inroads into the domestic coconut market with the recent introduction of Coco Mama Fresh Gata – a branded coconut product meant to help ease household cooking.
The Company entered the coconut business initially as an integrated manufacturer of high-value coconut products for OEM exports. It began by servicing the brands of others, benefitting from a global trend towards healthy and organic categories.
Since then, CNPF has grown to be one of the country’s leading producers of organic and conventional coconut products, with manufacturing facilities certified by leading local and international agencies.
Most recently, the Company was the first to receive in the Philippines the United States FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act and Voluntary Qualified Importer Program for the export of its virgin coconut oil.
Coco Mama Fresh Gata, in contrast, is the Company’s first major launch of a culinary coconut product using its own brand. Geared towards the domestic market, it leverages on CNPF’s existing coconut manufacturing facilities and extensive distribution network in the Philippines.
The product is also the most recent in a string of innovations by CNPF, which has tagged 2019 as a “Year of Innovation”, with its significant line-up of launches within the twelve-month period.
Earlier in the year, it launched Birch Tree Fortified Choco, a flavoured variant of its popular powdered milk drink product, and Argentina Corned Chicken, a chicken-based alternative to the Company’s iconic corned beef brand.
Coco Mama Fresh Gata, in turn, is meant to provide home cooks with an easy and convenient way to use fresh coconut cream without having to buy the actual coconut, and then grating and pressing it themselves.
Every pack of Coco Mama Fresh Gata contains coconut cream made from only the country’s finest coconuts – grated, pressed, and packed on the same day, ensuring the same taste and quality of freshly pressed coconuts.
This marks the latest in CNPF’s efforts to become a more diversified branded food group as it continues to invest in new and emerging categories.
It has since built a track record in launching and nurturing new products and brands, as well as bolting on adjacent businesses within its core competence of food.
To supplement its core businesses of marine and meat, CNPF has built up its milk and coconut businesses, which combined account for close to one-third of the Company’s overall topline.
It has also acquired the Philippine license for Hunt’s, with its local dominance in pork & beans and emerging presence in condiments, as well as the Kamayan trademark for North America, one of the top names for locally popular shrimp paste.
More recently, CNPF disclosed that its nine-month consolidated net income as of end-September 2019 grew by 10% year-on-year, primarily driven by the healthy performance of its Branded business. This was achieved despite heavy investments in brand-building and innovations to support growth moving forward.
The Company affirmed its target of sustaining double-digit growth for the balance of the year. More importantly, CNPF is focused on building a platform for growth beyond 2019, in line with its vision of becoming a leading branded company across a diversified set of food categories.
