Tanduay Distillers Inc., the liquor and spirits unit of LT Group Inc., expects to sustain its strong earnings growth posted in the first half and register a record performance in 2025 and beyond.

In an interview for the Manila Bulletin’s video podcast The Sit Down, Tanduay Chief Operating Officer Kyle C. Tan said that, to sustain record profits, the company has “a lot of different initiatives lined up both on the cost optimization side, but also on the product side.”

“We are really optimistic on this trend. We have a lot to improve on, to be honest, but i think we’ve come a long way,” he added.

Tanduay achieved its strongest first-half performance to date, with a net income of ₱1.36 billion from January to June 2025, a significant increase of 91 percent compared with the ₱712 million recorded in the same period last year.

Revenues grew by four percent to ₱15.25 billion while costs of sales remained steady at P12.62 billion, boosting gross profit margin to 17 percent from 14 percent.

Tanduay also reduced operating expenses by nearly 17 percent to P886 million, largely due to less spending on advertising and promotions.

“There's a lot of forces that we've done to have these record high profits. It just stems from the work that we’ve done to drive, to move forward. But I think that a huge, significant portion of that is really understanding down to the exact details, our costs in all the different companies and really just trying to optimize it,” said Tan.

He added that, “these small wins that we have innovated on every single day, every single week, really add up over the course of the years.”

the tech-savvy Tan, who holds a computer engineering degree, explained that Tanduay was able to increase revenues and market share while sharply reducing marketing and advertising expenses mainly through innovation and going digital or online.

“Since the pandemic, we understood the marketing angles, our marketing channels are definitely shifting,” he said noting that from mostly radio and television ads or line marketing efforts, they now advertise more on digital platforms.

Tan noted that, “Now a lot of people are looking at social media, for example. And that has even more of a reach in many cases, if you do it right, than (radio and TV). And with a fraction of the cost.”

“It's things like that that the pandemic kind of shook us up, to innovate on... have reduced the marketing tremendously, from the spending perspective, but at the same time allowed us to still have the same range. Actually, even better,” he said.

Tan said earnings will continue to be at record levels since the cost savings are sustainable while, at the same time, the company continues to grow its revenues through effective digital marketing as well as through product innovations that appeal to a broader market.