RFM opens new P450-M pasta manufacturing plant

Food and beverage firm RFM Corp. kicked off its 50th anniversary yesterday with the opening of its new P450-million Fiesta pasta plant.

The plant, inaugurated in the presence of President Arroyo, is reportedly the biggest and most modern production facility of its kind in the country, with major equipment supplied by Buhler of Switzerland.

RFM president and chief executive officer Jose Concepcion III said the product capacity expansion was due to the strong demand for pasta products offered by the company under the Fiesta brand.

“Fiesta is a home-grown brand of RFM for its spaghetti and macaroni products, as well as for complementary products like spaghetti sauce. Fiesta has become the second largest spaghetti brand in the country today, mainly due to its very strong quality and value proposition to consumers,” Concepcion said.

“It is natural for RFM to invest heavily in its Fiesta pasta business as this is its value added product for flour, which RFM is also known for. This investment brings RFM to world class standards as this line is the most technologically advanced long goods pasta processing line, which is fully computerized and can produce pasta from flour in as short as 3.5 to four hours. The line is the single largest of its kind in Southeast Asia,” Concepcion pointed out.

To ensure long-term growth, RFM mapped out a five-year strategic plan aimed at doubling the size of its business to P14 billion by 2012 while it exits from the real estate development business.

Aside from the pasta plant, RFM is spending P800 million to expand its PET bottle-blowing and filling lines for its newly-launched beverage products which include Sunkist Iced Tea, Hi-Juice and Vitwater.

Another P100 million is being set aside for the construction of cold storage facilities in Cabuyao, Laguna.

Another P20 million will go to the firm’s flour business.

Funding for the group’s expansion will come from long-term credit lines from banks.

“With the expansion, we aim to cut down further our production and logistics cost while at the same time ensure better consistency in quality.