Thinking on ^this a little further... PhP300/bottle?
That's a little too much even for SMB Premium Pale Pilsen,
even if served in some hipster tapas bar. Is it possible you
got suckered into buying imported Spanish "San Miguel"?
That swill is inferior to the Philippine San Miguel, which it
was originally based on. I remember trying some back in '93
just outside Zaragoza.
Some history (lol): Back in the 50's kasi, Spanish brewery La Segarra signed a
deal with our SMC to brew and market 'San Miguel' beer in
Europe. SMC took a minority stake in Segarra, which was
then renamed San Miguel S.A.
All was fine until the Sorianos started running SMC into a
deep hole. In an effort to stay solvent, and facing hostile
takeover by the Zobels, Andres Soriano Jr. sold out SMC's
stake in the Spanish company, which thus became wholly
independent of the Philippine brewer, and today is known
as Grupo Mahou - San Miguel.
The "San Miguel" logo on the Spanish beer looks similar...
but that's about it. It doesn't taste the same, but is now
making major inroads throughout Europe, and SMC is not
making a cent from it, precisely because it sold out , in
turn because of Soriano's mismanagement. This was the
same period in which SMC sold Magnolia Ice Cream to
Nestle, and Coca Cola Philippines to Amatil.
When he could not rouse stockholder support despite his
exposure of Soriano incompetence, a disgusted Enrique
Zobel sold virtually his entire stake (19.5%) to Eduardo
"Danding" Cojuangco, who purchased the same using a
controversial source: the coco levy funds.
A lot of lost opportunity in the European beer market, no?
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