Emperador Inc., a leading global brandy and whisky conglomerate headquartered in the Philippines, is allotting P7 billion for capital expenditures this year, driven mainly by the expansion of its single-malt whisky business. During the firm’s annual stockholders’ meeting, Emperador Inc. President Winston Co said P6 billion of the capex will be for the whisky expansion while P1 billion will be for its brandy business expansion. “We are building a new distillery for the Dalmore and more and more liquids are going into aging. All of these are done to beat our next 10 to 12 year forecasts and projections,” he added. Co noted that, “We are expanding our distillery and we are building more warehouses. We will be able to start new distillation by the latter part of 2024.” “It takes time to make good single malt whiskey. So how do we sustain the growth or whiskey when there is a long aging period? The liquid that the liquids that are currently aging in our warehouses are sufficient for us to reach our growth target for the next 10 years. “Currently, four of our old distilleries are distilling at full capacity and are being aged in our warehouses. Currently, we have enough liquid for our brands. But looking forward 10-12 years from today and looking at our annual growth projections, we believe that we have to increase our capacity,” he explained. Co said they are focusing on the expansion of their markets in the US and China as well as the potential of India as a trade agreement is being signed with the UK which will allow Emperador’s UK-based whisky brands to penetrate the world’s biggest country by population even as it starts to develop a taste for whisky. Meanwhile, Emperador reported a 10 percent year-on-year growth in attributable net income to P2.3 billion in the first quarter of 2023, while revenues rose by 26 percent to P15.6 billion. “Our business continues to be strong. We are happy to report a record first quarter net income of P2.3 billion, coming from three consecutive banner performances in 2020, 2021 and 2022,” said Co. He noted that, “Greater China and North America saw continued growth in the first quarter and so did our travel retail business on account of increased air travel. Ultimately, the strength of our business comes from having a compelling whisky and brandy product portfolio. For instance, our single malt whiskies are increasingly becoming more accessible and popular across the globe.” With Emperador's global footprint across over 100 countries in six continents, iconic and well-diversified brandy and whisky portfolio, and strong managements all over the world, the company has consistently performed particularly well during the challenging years of 2020-2022. Emperador Inc. is a global spirits conglomerate that owns an iconic brandy portfolio led by Emperador Brandy, the world’s largest-selling brandy by volume. It also owns Whyte and Mackay, the world’s fifth largest Scotch whisky producer that owns a compelling single malt portfolio. The company’s Tamnavulin Speyside Highland Single Malt is the fastest growing single malt in the world in 2021.