KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 7): Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd (F&N) is banking on its 100PLUS isotonic drink, NutriSoy soya milk and Seasons herbal and grass jelly drinks to drive revenue growth for the financial year ending Sept 30, 2015 (FY15).

Its non-executive director Datuk Ng Jui Sia said the food and beverage (F&B) firm is expecting revenue growth to be “a bit passed the average” in FY15, but declined to give an estimate.

“The key strategy in FY15 will be (to drive sales of) 100PLUS. It is well positioned within the healthier lifestyle portfolio and reinforce the F&N group’s position to provide consumers with enjoyable healthy products,” he told a media briefing today.

Besides promoting what Ng termed as “power brands”, he said F&N plans to use its Malaysian facilities as a platform for regional growth by manufacturing and introducing new products locally.

Ng also said F&N is preparing to launch a new cola brand known as Est Cola in the middle of next year, which will mark its first attempt to sell its own brand of cola drink after the termination of the Coca-Cola franchise in September 2011.

F&N is also planning to locally manufacture the Oishi brand of ready-to-drink green tea products from Thailand next year. In June last year, F&N was appointed exclusive distributor of Oishi green tea drinks in Malaysia.

With the anticipated increase in manufacturing activities, Ng said a large capital expenditure (capex) by the group on the soft drink segment in the near future will be inevitable.

“Can you imagine when we start producing Oishi green tea and Est Cola in Malaysia? The demand on our existing facilities is going to increase.

"So, we will need to expand. Going forward, the capex will all be in soft drinks,” he said.

“In the years to come, we will have countries such as Myanmar and Vietnam coming in [as consumers]. Malaysia will play a role where it is the centre of F&B excellence with a mega facility for regional exports,” he added.

For FY15, however, F&N’s capex allocation of some RM50 million will be used for the maintenance of all of its existing facilities.

The focus on the soft drink segment makes sense as the division was the main contributor to the group’s growth in revenue and profit in FY14.

For FY14, F&N’s soft drink division recorded a 26.2% increase in pre-tax profit from RM129 million to RM163 million a year ago, on a 4.4% growth in sales volume.  This helped F&N rake in a 4.5% increase or RM1.53 billion in revenue in FY14.

As for the group’s dairy business, Ng said F&N will keep on reinforcing Malaysia’s position as a halal manufacturing hub to increase exports into Muslim countries. It will also use its Thailand dairy business to tap further into the Indochina market for all of its core products.

On its property development business, Ng said F&N will launch the first phase of its Fraser Square development in Petaling Jaya in March 2015 while the second phase will be poised for a launch two to three months after.

Ng noted that the first phase of the development will be completed in three to four years after the launch.

The Fraser Square project features a mix of residential blocks, a shopping mall, small office/home office (SoHo) units, hotel and corporate offices.