Liberty not renewing Gold Medal flour deal

MANILA, Philippines - Liberty Flour Mills (LFM) has decided not to renew its licensing agreement to manufacture and sell Gold Medal All Purpose Flour in the Philippines. This was announced by its president Dr. Felix K. Maramba Jr. at the annual stockholders’ meeting held last May 26 at the Liberty Bldg. in Makati.

“After 49 years of manufacturing Gold Medal flour for domestic consumption, our board of directors has voted not to renew the contract with General Mills,” Dr. Maramba said.

LFM started manufacturing Gold Medal All Purpose Flour in 1961 for General Mills, Inc. based in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States.

Liberty Flour Mills chairman William Carlos Uy said “we are proud to have manufactured flour of the highest quality in the Philippines, for which we have maintained market leadership from the very beginning, and will continue doing so.” He told shareholders that Gold Medal accounts for less than one percent of LFM’s total revenues and therefore would not affect its overall performance.

LFM, a publicly listed corporation, is the flagship of the Liberty group of companies which is involved in a wide range of businesses, such as flour milling, food processing, marketing of flour and grocery products, animal feed production, agricultural chemicals, culinary education, food service and real estate.

For over a half century LFM has been producing different types of flour for breads, cakes, biscuits and pastries under its own brands LFM Bakers, LFM Soft, El Superior, Pine tree and LFM Brown.

Sister company Liberty Commodities Corp. (LCC) owns the Maya brand, a household name and pioneer in wheat-based products. In the 60s, Maya introduced the hotcake mix which has consistently been the top selling brand. This was followed by cake flour brownie, cake and other mixes and lately cornstarch. Its Oven Toaster Mix line is the first kind in the world.