By Madelaine B. Miraflor After its $300-million acquisition of a New Zealand company, Manila-based Bounty Fresh Food, Inc. (Bounty Fresh) will temporarily take a step back from closing more overseas deals, but will continue expanding in countries over the next 10 years. A top company official said Bounty Fresh is keeping its plan to establish presence in 10 foreign markets over the next 10 years. So far, the company is in three foreign locations, namely New Zealand, Indonesia, and Malaysia. “Somebody asked me before what is my 10 to 15-year growth plan and I said I’d like to be in 10 foreign markets. We are now in three. Hopefully, going forward, we can go into more markets,” Bounty Fresh President and Chief Executive Officer Tennyson Chen said on the sidelines of ASEAN Family Business Conference held yesterday. “In ASEAN, it is Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Those are the countries that we are looking at,” he added. Chen, however, noted that expansion in these new foreign markets will not happen anytime soon as the company is still in the middle of bringing back its newly acquired firm in New Zealand into profitability. “You buy a $300-million company, you have to digest first,” Chen said. In April last year, Bounty Fresh acquired Tegel Group Holdings Ltd. for $309.4 million, which came as the New Zealand company was struggling to meet sales target amid glut in domestic chicken supplies. “When we came in , we found out about a lot of things that are not conforming with our practices. We tried to get it back on track. Next year, we will slowly get back on track,” Chen said. “One of the things that they did is they sold some of their facilities, then they leased it back. So, in the meantime, we have to get everything in order first. And get it back to a certain level of profitability. By next year, it should be profitable already,” he added. Chen also noted that in general, going into other countries is not easy, given the adjustment the company needs to do in terms of the regulatory and business environment.