Swift Foods to sell assets to pay debts

MANILA, Philippines - Concepcion-led Swift Foods Inc. intends to sell its remaining operating branch and other properties within the next 12 months to pare down debt.

Only the Palawan branch remains as the only company operated facility. It produces quality Swift Sariwanok chicken.

Swift said its primary concern is to pay off obligations through the sale of assets. Aside from this, the company also intends to significantly whittle down the number of its employees when the remaining branch is sold.

Last March, Swift raised around P500 million from the sale of three parcels of land on Sheridan St. in Mandaluyong City to DMCI Project Developers Inc. The properties, which had a total area of 11,116 square meters, were sold at P45,000 per square meter.

In the first quarter this year, Swift trimmed its net loss to P7.59 million from P36.27 million a year earlier even as sales fell to P18.57 million.

The decline of revenues was attributed to the closure of its Luzon operation, except for the Palawan branch which remains operational.

Expenses, however, went down to P8.2 million from P15.84 million due to retrenchment of Luzon employees.

As of end-March 2012, the company’s assets stood at P1.027 billion.

Swift is primarily organized into two business divisions: agribusiness (poultry and feeds) and meat (meat processing and sales and distribution) divisions. Its agribusiness division produces and sells poultry products: live and dressed/ processed chicken.

Dressed chickens branded as Swift Sariwanok are sold either whole, cutup into parts and/or customized and marinated according to customers’ requirements.

The company’s poultry production involves four processes: breeding, hatching, broiler growing operations and dressing/processing operations