Unilever, a multinational consumer goods company, is set to launch the commercial operations of their state-of-the-art facility in Cavite by the first quarter of 2023, the Board of Investments (BOI) announced on Friday.
Evariste M. Cagatan, executive director of BOI, said Unilever’s latest P4.7-billion project is a personal-care facility, which is expected to hire as many as 130 employees.
“The Unilever expansion, that’s one of the highlights of the visit. They have shared with us their P4.7-billion project in General Trias, Cavite, this is a personal-care facility. They said I think it is one of their biggest personal-care facilities. It is a state-of-the-art facility run by 4 IR [industrial revolution] technology,” Cagatan told reporters at a virtual media briefing on Friday.
Cagatan also noted that the new facility would be using “the advanced 4th industrial revolution lighthouse which is also being used in other Unilever global facilities.”
Cagatan said Unilever would have a “15 percent more capacity using the latest technology.” She also noted that the General Trias facility of the multinational consumer goods firm would generate 88,000 tons annual capacity of personal-care products.
For his part, Benjie Yap, Unilever Philippines chairman, emphasized that the P4.7-billion investment will contribute to the Philippine manufacturing sector.
“We expressed to President (Ferdinand R.) Marcos our long-term commitment to sustainable and responsible growth in the country and we are optimistic that our new P4.7-billion investment in a future-fit personal-care factory in Cavite will contribute to the Philippine manufacturing sector’s competitiveness as we employ highly advanced technologies, with the potential to qualify the facility for the World Economic Forum’s ‘Advanced Fourth Industrial Revolution Lighthouse,’” the Unilever Philippines chairman said.
BOI Undersecretary Ceferino Rodolfo, for his part, said President Marcos highlighted that 95 percent of what Unilever sells in the Philippines are made in the Philippines.
In a separate statement on Friday, BOI, an attached agency of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and one of the leading investment promotion agencies in the country, said various European firms “have committed to expanding and setting up operations to support sustainable and innovative projects in the Philippines.”
The agency said the estimated investment pledges generated amounted to almost P10 billion. This amount, the BOI noted, encompasses the investments made by “committed” firms engaged in sustainability solutions, such as agro-logistics design, ecological hydropower turbines, sustainable infrastructure, and fuel-efficient sea vessels.
The BOI top official said the President met with several European companies at the sidelines of the 10th Asean-European Union Business Summit. The DTI, Philippine Trade and Investment Center, Foreign Trade Service Corps and the BOI organized the event.
During the Asean-EU Summit, the investment promotion agency said the Philippines also registered its willingness to resume talks with the European Union in pursuit of a Philippines-EU free trade agreement .