CEBU CITY, Aug. 29 (PNA) — Cebu-based beauty care product maker GT Cosmetics Manufacturing is investing P50 million on a new soap plant in the northern Cebu town of Liloan in preparation for a projected increase in demand with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) integration in 2015.
Leonora B. Salvane, GT Cosmetics owner and national sales manager, said the company’s third manufacturing plant will rise on a 3,320-square meter property in Barangay Tayud, Liloan.
Salvane said the plant, which is projected to start operations in the middle of next year, is expected to increase the current daily production in their Liloan plant of 6,000 soaps ten-fold.
Salvane said the decision to open another facility was prompted by the request of Watsons, a personal care firm partly owned by mall operator SM Prime Holdings Inc., to increase GT Cosmetics’ present supply since it is planning to add more products in its stores across Southeast Asia.
“Watsons requested us to expand our volume. We told Watsons that we will be ready. We will be adding more products to their existing outlets,” she said.
At present, GT Cosmetics maintains a combined daily soap production of 12,000 pieces from their Liloan and Batangas facilities.
The Liloan plant produces soap for Visayas and Mindanao, while the Batangas plant latter produces for Luzon.
The figure is already a mix of their carrot, papaya and bleaching soaps.
The third plant, the biggest among the three, will employ 80 workers.
Salvane said their facility in Barangay Kalubihan in Liloan, which employs around 50 people, will be transferring to the new plant once it starts to operate.
She said the company is still looking into what it will do with the Kalubihan facility.
Last June, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources stopped the operation of GT Cosmetics’ Kalubihan plant with reports of foul odor coming from the plant’s drainage.
GT Cosmetics products are also sold in countries like Japan, Canada, and United States through GT Cosmetics International. (PNA)