MANILA, Philippines - The CIIF-Oil Mils Group (CIIF-OMG) proved that sequestered companies can be profitable if put under competent management as it recorded a P79-million net profit for 2009.
The Group actually posted a P228-million profit last year. However, it had to pay P149 million in interest to banks as it was forced to borrow P2 billion for operating capital pending the release of its accruing CIIF dividends from its San Miguel Corp. shares.
This was a huge turnaround that the new management team headed by CIIF-OMG president and CEO Jesus L. Arranza accomplished as the Group – consisting of Legaspi Oil Co., San Pablo Manufacturing Corp., Cagayan de Oro Oil Co., Inc., Southern Luzon Coconut Oil Mill Inc., and Granexport Manufacturing Corp. – incurred P1.5 billion in losses from 2005 to 2007.
Arranza, who has been in the coconut oil industry since the early 80’s and made Baguio Oil and later Minola the top brands in the market, was asked by President Arroyo to head CIIF-OMG early last year and fix its operational problems.
He assembled the management team composed of lawyer Jun Nario, vice president for corporate services; Anthony Felipe, vice president for finance; Henry Lao, vice president for trading and operations; lawyer Dodie Aguila, vice president for agribusiness and special projects, and Mamerto Bernard, national sales manager handling Minola and Mitra cooking oil.
The new team re-opened the Group’s Arimbay plant and the Cagayan de Oro facility that increased CIIF’s actual copra crushing capacity from 63 percent in 2008 to 71 percent in 2009.
The company grew its exports to $114 million last year, and shipments of hydrogenated edible oil (RBD in drums) to China and edible cooking oil to Korea started. Locally, Minola managed to retain its top ranking in the cooking oil market with sales of 13,600 MT.