Universal Robina Corp. is looking to use its acquisition of New Zealand biscuit maker Griffin’s Foods to offer its own-label products to retailers in Australia, the Philippines-based group’s chief executive has told just-food.
The NZ$700m purchase of Griffin’s is expected to close by the end of October and URC ownership could boost the presence of the Choco-Ade and Squiggles owner in markets in south-east Asia.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
URC chief executive Lance Gokongwei said the “more immediate opportunity” for the company was to take Griffin’s products to “higher per-capita income markets” in the region like Malaysia and Singapore.
However, Gokongwei said URC is also eyeing taking its own products into Australia’s own-label sector, where Griffin’s already supplies private-label biscuits.
“URC can leverage into the distribution platform and retailer relationships in Australia to introduce URC products particularly in the budget portion of retailer-branded or discounter-branded segments,” Gokongwei said.
The bulk of Griffin’s revenue is generated in New Zealand, wher eit is one of the two largest biscuit manufacturers. However, the company has been building a business in Australia, where it produces own-label products for Woolworths Ltd, Coles and Aldi.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataGokongwei told just-food URC would look at offering own-label biscuits from its plants in south-east Asia, which he argued gave the company a cost advantage.
“The main opportunity for URC products made out of Philippines, Vietnam or Thailand is probably to take advantage of the relatively low manufacturing cost and price-point and try to build some sales and opportunity particularly on the biscuit or wafers side,” he said.
Click here for just-food’s analysis of why URC swooped to buy Griffin’s.
