Tanduay Distillers

History

Tanduay has over a hundred years of history.

It all began in 1854 when Don Joaquin Elizalde, together with his uncle, Juan Bautista Yrissary, and the Manila-based Spanish businessman and financier Joaquin Ynchausti established a trading partnership, which acquired the Manila Steamship Company. This alliance was named the Ynchausti Y Cia. Their main line of business was ship chandlery and later on ventured into abaca making. The steamships they owned plied the Laguna Lake to Manila route. Later, Valentin Teus, a cousin of the Elizaldes, joined the partnership. Teus acquired a distillery in Hagonoy, Bulacan from Elias Menchatorre and merged it with Ynchausti Y Cia. Six years later, a rectifying plant of this distillery was constructed in San Miguel District, Manila. This small distillery was transformed by four successive generations of the Elizaldes into the modern Tanduay Distillery, considered one of the largest in the Philippines.

The Elizalde Family invested and developed agricultural properties in Western Visayas, particularly in Panay and Negros Occidental, wherein they grew sugar cane. These plantations became a vital necessity in the production of sugar, the most important raw material in making rhum. Ynchausti Y Cia used the steamboats to transfer the raw materials to the Tanduay compound where they produced rhum.

In 1893, Don Joaquin Elizalde became the majority stockholder in Ynchausti Y Cia, and the company was renamed Elizalde & Co. Inc. This paved the way for further diversification of its business interests. Slowly but surely, Tanduay was transformed into a successful industry, producing quality rhum and other distilled spirits for both the domestic and international markets.

In May 10, 1988, Twin Ace Holdings Corporation, owned and managed by the Lucio Tan Group of Companies (L.T.G.C.), acquired Tanduay Distillery from the Elizalde Family. The new management launched a plant modernization and expansion program that increased the distillery's production capacity by almost 50 times.

On July 8, 1999, Asian Pacific Equity Corporation (APEC), a company listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange, also owned and controlled by the Lucio Tan Group, acquired 100% ownership of Twin Ace Holdings via a share swap with Twin Ace's existing shareholders which formalized Tanduay's entry to the local stock market scene. On July 30, 1999, Twin Ace Holdings changed its corporate name to Tanduay Distillers, Inc. and its authorized capital increased from 1 Million to 2 Billion at a par value of 1.00 per share. On November 10, 1999, APEC changed its corporate name to Tanduay Holdings, Inc. and increased its authorized capital from 1 Billion to 5 Billion at a par value of 1.00 php per share.

Tanduay Distillers have three distilling plants:
- Manila Plant
- Bacolod Plant
- Cabuyao Plant

The Lucban Tan-owned Tanduay Distillers Inc., the country's number one rhum maker, is investing P1 billion (US$17.87 million) for the construction of a new distillery facility in Cagayan de Oro to serve the Mindanao market.

In a press conference for the company's 150th anniversary, TDI president and chief operating officer Wilson T. Young said the new facility with a monthly production capacity of 400,000 cases of rhum will be operational by early 2006. The expansion project will be funded through internally-generated funds.

Young said the facility, which will be TDI's fourth rhum production site in the country, will most probably be located near its existing facility in El Salvador in Cagayan de Oro The new facility will include a distillery, warehouse and a bottling plant.
Tanduay rhum corners 98 percent of the domestic rhum market.

Tanduay have adopted its corporate name from its location, a triangular region encircled by the esteros of San Miguel and San Sebastian, which Spanish mapmakers referred to as Isla de Tanduay. The word "Tanduay" originated from the word tanguay, an old Tagalog term for isthmus or peninsula. It also means "low-lying land" because the entire area, including Quiapo, was frequently flooded during the rainy season. In the Cebuano and Visayan dialect, tanguay meant "a place where tuba, a local coconut-based liquor, is bought and sold".