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Founded in 1908 as Compania Nobel de Filipinas to manufacture blasting explosives for the mining industry, expanding into nitrogenous fertilizers and other products. Capitalization increased in 1931 when current style was adopted, Produces fertilizers (including calcium cyanamide, calcium carbide, ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulphate), explosives (including dynamite, ballistite, tetryl and shimose), and other chemical products (including ammonia, ammonium perchlorate, butanol and picric acid).

Affiliated with the family firm Lopez y Compania.

This firm was founded in November 1881 by Don Antonio Lopez, the first Marqués de Comillas, who acquired from the Spanish colonial government its tobacco monopoly in the Philippine Islands. It took over five tobacco processing plants from the colonial government, that were swiftly expanded to include sorting, preparing and manufacturing tobacco products for sale – chiefly cigars and cigarettes. It acquired large properties in San Antonio, Santa Isabel and San Luis in Cagayán Valley for growing tobacco. One of its properties is the famed Hacienda Luisita, where more than six thousand workers are employed. Prior to independence in 1898 the firm exercised an almost monopolistic control over the whole Philippine tobacco leaf industry.

The firm also expanded into the growing of abaca, coconuts, and sugar; into sugar milling and rice trading; inter-island shipping and into the distilling of liquor. In 1908 it established La Flor de la Isabela, one of the largest cigar factories in the world.

Subsidiary Companies

Bingalbagan Isabela Sugar Company
General Milling Company
Manadue Timber Company
North American Trading and Importing Company
San Augustin Plantation Company
Tanduay Distillery Company

Affiliated with the family firm Soriano y Compania

Formed in 1906 to undertake the local manufacture of cotton thread, this firm has undergone substantial expansion and is one of the largest manufacturers of cotton textiles in the nation. It has several factories in the metropolitan Manila area and operates more than 165,000 spindles for spinning all classes of cotton yarn as more than two thousand looms for the manufacture of coarse cotton cloth, cotton shirting and fine cottons.

Affiliated with the family firm Fernandez Hermanos y Compania; operates two works:

Davao City Works – established 1930 as part of the city’s first phase of industrialization. Current output 65,000 tons per annum, with projected expansion to 150,000 tons.

Iligan City Works – established 1936 in response to the growing industrial strength of the Lanao del Norte region. Current output 40,000 tons per annum, with projected expansion to 100,000 tons.

Affiliated with the family firm Gonzalo Puyat and Sons.

Binangonan Works – oldest cement works in the nation, established in 1912. Current output 100,000 tons per annum, with projected expansion to 250,000 tons.

The firm was organized in 1933 to construct the nation’s first oil refinery at Limay, Bataan Province; the 90,000 barrel per day refinery went on stream in 1935. Using crude oil imported from the Netherlands East Indies and from Mexico it produces automotive fuels, diesel and furnace fuel oils, kerosene, lubricating and motor oils, as well as naphtha feedstock for further processing. The company also maintains a deepwater oil transshipment terminal at Limay for the loading and unloading of tankers.

Affiliated with the family firm Delgado y Compania

Founded in 1927 to operate a coconut processing and oil pressing works at Iloilo, Panay. Since then it has diversified into the manufacture of margarine, soap and oilcake for livestock. The firm produces more than 100,000 tons of coconut oil per annum.

The firm was founded in 1916 in response to shortages of ruled paper products occasioned by the Great War. Operating from a large factory in Cavite the firm manufactures ruled paper, writing pads and notebooks for students and the business community. In 1931 it diversified into the manufacture of common writing pencils, opening a second works in Rizal City. The firm also represents as agent such notable foreign manufacturers of stationery and other products as Binney and Smith, the Parker Pen Company and Faber Castell.

The origins of the firm date to before the turn of the century, when Canado Almazora established a workshop to manufacture horse-drawn carriages. In 1925, under the leadership of Perfecto Almazora the firm moved to new facilities in Carmona, outside Manila, and began to diversify into coach-building on the chassis of imported motor vehicles, chiefly motor trucks and motor busses. In 1941 the firm was selected by the Philippine Army as prime contractor for the assembly of its fleet of Fargo light trucks; the firm will also construct the specialist bodywork required for these vehicles.

Affiliated with the family firm Soriano y Compania

In 1920 the general trading firm of Soriano y Compania split off its electrical lighting department into a separate firm to expand its profile within the Philippine market. In 1926 the firm established a local factory in Las Pinas for the manufacture of light bulbs using Osram patents. It presently manufactures light bulbs for home, municipal and industrial use, and remains the only domestic manufacturer at this time.

This firm was established in the early 1920s at the instigation of the Philippine government and in cooperation with the Czech Skoda Works, which holds one-third of the capital of the company. Foundries, forges and steel-fabricating facilities were established at Davao to support the manufacture of large-caliber naval ordnance and field artillery. The works also undertakes the construction of steel railway bridge components and other heavy steel fabrications; in the 1930s it became the only factory in the nation capable of manufacturing armored vehicles.