Keepers is among the biggest distributors of wine and liquor in the Philippines.
Courtesy of The Keepers HoldingsThe Keepers Holdings—the spirits distributor founded by billionaire Lucio Co—is entering the booming beer market in the Philippines with the acquisition of Booze Online.
The Philippine-listed company is buying Booze Online for less than 160 million pesos ($2.7 million), Keepers said in a regulatory filing. The final pricing has yet to be determined pending ongoing negotiations and due diligence, it added.
Booze Online—which distributes about 100 foreign beer brands including Hoegaarden, Stella Artois, and Becks—claims to be the largest importer of beer in the Philippines by sales.
“This completes Keepers’ product offering,” said John Gatmaytan, chairman of Luna Securities. “It’s a small market segment but growing faster than local beer. It has a steady following that’s growing with the demand for premium beer.”
Keepers is the country’s biggest importer of wine, brandy and hard liquor with a 75% market share. It also has a stake in Spain’s Bodegas Williams & Humbert, maker of Alfonso brandy, which has been a key growth driver. The company said sales for the first nine months of the year increased 15% to 11.7 billion pesos.
Beer consumption in the Philippines is expected to increase to 3.8 billion liters by 2027 from 2.6 billion liters last year, according to Statista. While local brewer San Miguel dominates the market, the country has been increasingly importing beer in recent years.
Apart from his spirits business, Co and his wife Susan own grocery chain Puregold. The couple has a combined net worth of $2.3 billion, ranking them No. 9 in the list of the Philippines’ 50 richest that Forbes Asia published in August. Their business interests include finance, oil retailing, real estate, and renewable energy.
Covering companies in the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia based in Manila.