The story
Founded by John Gokongwei in 1954.1
The company was founded on September 28, 1954 by John Gokongwei, Jr. under the name Universal Corn Products (UCP) after Gokongwei decided to construct a corn milling plant to produce glucose and cornstarch.
In 1961, Consolidated Food Corporation (later known as CFC Corporation) was established. The company's first product was Blend 45 instant coffee. It became one of the best-selling instant coffee brands in the local market, beating Café Puro and Nescafé at that time. After the success of Blend 45, the company launched the Presto brand to enter the chocolate segment in the late 1960s with its cocoa powder, powdered chocolate drink and confectionery. It later launched Nips, a brand of chocolate candies similar to M&M's. It became a staple among Filipino children.
In 1963, Robina Farms started their operations with poultry products. This marked the beginning of the vertical integration of the Gokongwei businesses, as the farms would be able to purchase feeds from UCP in the future. In the same decade, Robichem Laboratories was established for the veterinary needs of the farms' businesses. In the 1970s, Robina Farms expanded their operations as they entered the piggery business.
In 2014, URC announced a joint venture with Danone for a beverage production and distribution business in the Philippines. In the same year, URC established a joint venture with Calbee to establish local manufacturing for Calbee products. The joint venture was later terminated in 2018 upon Calbee selling its shares to URC. That same year, URC expanded to Oceania by acquiring New Zealand-based biscuit company, Griffin's Foods. This was followed by the acquisition of Snack Brands Australia in 2016. In December 2019, URC and German company Intersnack formed Unisnack ANZ, a joint venture comprising Griffin's Foods and Snack Brands Australia. Intersnack held a 40% stake in the consolidated business. However, URC would exit the venture in August 2021 by selling its stake in Unisnack ANZ to Intersnack.
In November 2021, URC entered an agreement to purchase Malaysia-based Munchy's from CVC Capital Partners for US$454 million.
From Wikipedia’s article on Universal Robina, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4