San Miguel Brewery Plant-Mandaue City
San Miguel Brewery, Incorporated, now San Miguel Corporation established its first soft drink plant outside Manila in Cebu City. The Cebu Royal Plant was established in 1940 and it became operational on November of 1941 under the management of Mr. J.B. Preysler. Main product of this plant was soft drinks – Coca-Cola and Royal and distributor of beer in Visayas and Mindanao.
When World War II came, it fell to the hands of the Japanese Military Government. A new line of soft drink was bottled, using vinegar extract for carbonation and a new management was formed under Mr. Jose Corrales.
The rehabilitation of the Cebu Plant was effected after the liberation in 1945 and reopened in 1946. In 1949, it bought the franchise for ice production and distribution and named it the Visayan Ice and Cold Storage Plant besides the old Cebu Royal Plant along Martires Street. It did not last long because Magnolia sales office was opened in 1954 and produced ice cream, frozen delights and Anchor butter. Due to the economic growth at that time and increase of demand of their products, San Miguel expanded its operations still in Cebu due to its center of economic activities in Central and Southern Philippines. Mandaue was then selected as the site of the new modern complex. The year 1964 was the start of the construction and eventually inaugurated in February 8, 1968. From that year on, SMC became a landmark, not only in Mandaue but in the entire province. The industrial complex, about 27.1 hectares was like a village of its own. It is self-supporting. It occupies of what use to be farmlands in Tipolo. It has its own automotive repairs and maintenance shop and training center, warehouses for materials and ingredients used in the products of the different plants, glass plant, engineering building, a fire station and security office, sports facilities such as pelota, basketball and tennis courts, training center for the physical and intellectual upliftment of its 3,000 or so employees, staff houses for key official who are on call, a water treatment plant, a fuel treatment plant, gasoline station, LPG tank farm, fuel tanks, paint vault and storage building, BMD sales office and bodega, industrial gas storage shed, a cullet crushing shed, a GSD central stores, medical clinic, guest house, a metal closure plant, plastic case plant, power plant and a wharf which is about 2.5 kilometers from the complex.
source: http://www.mandauecity.gov.ph/festival/otherlandmarks.htm
