Cerebos Pacific sees coffee growth boosting sales

Singapore's Cerebos Pacific Ltd hopes to cross S$1 billion ($791 million) in sales this year for the first time and aims to double its revenue in six to seven years, fuelled by growth in its health supplements and coffee businesses, its chief executive said on Thursday.
Health foods and sauces maker Cerebos is most well known for its flagship product Brand's Essence of Chicken, a liquid health supplement that was first concocted by the royal chef of the United Kingdom's King George IV. It derives the bulk of its sales from this product but hopes that an expansion of its coffee business in Asia would help reach its targets.
"Through organic growth, it's possible to keep growing at double digits, in the teens," Eiji Koike, president and group chief executive officer of Cerebos, told Reuters in an interview. "We want to grow at higher than 10 percent, and in six to seven years, (reaching) S$2 billion is possible by investing more in coffee and health supplements."
In the last financial year ended September 2010, Cerebos had revenue of S$924.1 million. It has since changed its financial year to match the calendar year ending December. Cerebos, which is 83.3 percent owned by Japan's Suntory Ltd, currently sells coffee beans to cafes and retailers in Australia and New Zealand.
It expects rising demand for gourmet coffee in Asia to spur growth in its coffee business in the medium to long term, Koike said. "Coffee culture in Asia is still under developed...So there are a lot of opportunities," he said, adding that Cerebos is likely to focus on Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong first, as consumers in these markets have higher disposable income.
Last year, Cerebos' total coffee sales stood at around S$150 million, or about 15 percent of its total sales, and Koike said he aims to double this in the next five years. Cerebos opened its first cafe in Singapore a few weeks ago under its Australian brand Toby's Estate as it seeks to build its reputation as a wholesaler of high-quality coffee beans in the region. It also plans to open another cafe in Shanghai next year to test the potential of the Chinese market.
As for its core health supplements business where it has dominant market share in Thailand and Taiwan, Koike said Cerebos has room for expansion in under-penetrated markets like Singapore and Malaysia, and can also expand in newer emerging markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia and China.