Andrés Soriano Sr. (February 8, 1898 – December 30, 1964) was a

Spanish Filipino Spanish Filipinos ( es, español filipino / hispano filipino / castellano filipino; cbk, español filipino / hispano filipino / conio; Filipino/ tl, Kastilà / Espanyól / Tisoy / Konyo; ceb, Katsílà / Ispaniyul; hil, Katsílà / Espany� ...

industrialist. Described by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' in 1964 as "one of the most dominant business personalities in the western Pacific area," he was best known for expanding the original San Miguel Brewery evolving into

San Miguel Corporation San Miguel Corporation, abbreviated as SMC, is a Philippine Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila. The company is one of the largest and most diversified congl ...

. He also established philanthropies and encouraged good employee relations by sharing profits with his more than 16,000 employees by establishing a

pension plan A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

that paid retired employees 25% of their salary, with guaranteed sick leaves and medical benefits. He was the founder of

Philippine Airlines Philippine Airlines (PAL), a trade name of PAL Holdings, Inc. ( PSEPAL (Philippine Air Lines until 1970), is the flag carrier airline of the Philippines. Headquartered at the PNB Financial Center in Pasay, the airline was founded in 1941 and i ...

, Asia's first air carrier. In 1935, during

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

era, Soriano established Commonwealth Insurance Company, a

non-life insurance General insurance or non-life insurance policy, including automobile and homeowners policies, provide payments depending on the loss from a particular financial event. General insurance is typically defined as any insurance that is not determine ...

company.

Family

Soriano was born on February 8, 1898 in

San Miguel, Manila San Miguel is a primarily middle-class residential area of the City of Manila, and is one of the city's sixteen traditional districts. Background Much of San Miguel is located on a riverine island, separated by the mainland by the Estero de ( ...

, Philippines. His father, Don Eduardo Soriano y Sanz, was a Spanish engineer who migrated to Philippines in the late 19th century. His mother, Doña Margarita Róxas de Ayala y Róxas, was the daughter of Pedro Pablo Róxas, and the granddaughter of Antonio de Ayala and Doña Margarita Róxas, progenitors of the prominent Róxas de Ayala and Zóbel de Ayala clans. Soriano was a second cousin of siblings, Col. Jacobo Zóbel (father of Enrique J. Zobel), Alfonso Zóbel de Ayala (father of

Jaime Zobel de Ayala Jaime Zóbel de Ayala y Pfitz (born 18 July 1934), also known as Jaime Zóbel, is a Filipino businessman who served as the chairman of the Ayala Corporation from 1984 to 2006 and as its president from 1984 to 1994. Presently, he holds the ho ...

), Mercedes Zóbel McMicking and the artist Fernando Zóbel. Soriano had three siblings, including sisters, Carmen and Margarita. Soriano was married to Carmen Montemar in 1924. The couple had two sons, José María Soriano (born on February 6, 1925) and

Andres Soriano Jr. Andres or Andrés may refer to: *Andres, Illinois, an unincorporated community in Will County, Illinois, US *Andres, Pas-de-Calais, a commune in Pas-de-Calais, France *Andres (name) *Hurricane Andres * "Andres" (song), a 1994 song by L7 See also ...

Career

San Miguel Corporation

In 1920, the 22-year-old Soriano joined the original

San Miguel Brewery San Miguel Brewery Inc. is a subsidiary of San Miguel Corporation and jointly owned with Kirin Holdings Co. Ltd. The company is the Philippines’ largest brewery with a market share of over 95% as of 2008. The company also operates in China a ...

as an accountant. In six months, he became acting manager. By 1924, he was its general manager, and in 1931, at the age of 33 he was elected as its president. During his incumbency, the San Miguel expanded beyond brewery and began to bottle

Royal Tru Royal Tru (often referred to simply as Royal) is a carbonated fruit-flavored soft drink brand owned by The Coca-Cola Company that is only available in the Philippines. The brand was introduced in 1922 by the original San Miguel Brewery. Since ...

-Orange and

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atlanta ...

, manufacture

Magnolia Ice Cream Magnolia is a food and beverage brand owned by San Miguel Corporation (SMC) and used by its various subsidiaries. The brand was commercially established by SMC (then known as San Miguel Brewery) as an ice cream brand in 1925. History The hist ...

and dairy products, carbonic acid, dry ice and Fleischmann's Yeast. During his presidency, Soriano was known for being authoritative and paternalistic in managing the company. His employees described his leadership as known for having "his word was law", and that includes deciding the "flavor of the month" in

, one of the company's products. He was also actively involved in rebuilding San Miguel after the war and its further expansion with the acquisition of the Balintawak Beer Brewery in Polo, Bulacan.

A. Soriano Corporation (ANSCOR)

In the 1930s, Soriano established A. Soriano Corporation (ANSCOR) as a holding company for his investments outside of San Miguel. Initially, ANSCOR concentrated on natural resources and basic industries, investing in Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation,

Phelps Dodge Phelps Dodge Corporation was an American mining company founded in 1834 as an import-export firm by Anson Greene Phelps and his two sons-in-law William Earle Dodge, Sr. and Daniel James. The latter two ran Phelps, James & Co., the part of the ...

Philippines and Atlas Fertilizer Corporation. ANSCOR also went into insurance;

gold mining Gold mining is the extraction of gold resources by mining. Historically, mining gold from alluvial deposits used manual separation processes, such as gold panning. However, with the expansion of gold mining to ores that are not on the surface ...

(Antamok Mining, which together with the companies of John Hausserman and Jan Hendrik Marsman, made the Philippines second only to California as the top gold producer of the world); oil exploration (Philippine Oil Development Company, Inc.); airline (

);

copper mining Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper consists of a series of physical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, loca ...

(Atlas Consolidated); copper wire manufacture (

Philippines);

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

from pyrite (Atlas Fertilizer); logging and

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

(Bislig Bay Lumber); paper manufacture (Paper Industries Corporation of the Philippines (PICOP));

fluorescent lamps A fluorescent lamp, or fluorescent tube, is a low-pressure mercury-vapor gas-discharge lamp that uses fluorescence to produce visible light. An electric current in the gas excites mercury vapor, which produces short-wave ultraviolet ligh ...

and

incandescent light bulb An incandescent light bulb, incandescent lamp or incandescent light globe is an electric light with a wire filament heated until it glows. The filament is enclosed in a glass bulb with a vacuum or inert gas to protect the filament from oxida ...

s (Philippine Electrical Manufacturing Company (PEMCO)); jute bags (Industrial Textiles Manufacturing Company of the Philippines, Inc. (ITEMCOP)); steel drums ( Rheem Philippines); newspapers (''The Philippines Herald'') and broadcasting ( DZTV Channel 13). Atlas Consolidated grew to be the largest copper mine of its time in the Far East and one of the ten largest copper mines in the world.

Citizenship

He was a Spanish citizen and leader of the

Philippine Falange The Philippine Falange, the informal name for the Spanish National Assemblies of the Philippines (''Juntas Nacionales Españolas''), was a Philippine falangist political party that was a branch of the Spanish Falange.Hermógenes E. Bacareza: ''A ...

during the late 1930s until he applied for

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

citizenship. After becoming a Filipino citizen, Soriano served as secretary of finance, agriculture and commerce during the wartime cabinet of the Quezon administration. Soriano also served with

USAFFE United States Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE) (Filipino: ''Hukbong Katihan ng Estados Unidos sa Malayong Silangan/HKEUMS''; Spanish: ''Fuerzas del Ejército de los Estados Unidos en el Lejano Oriente'') was a military formation of the Unite ...

and later as a

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

on General Douglas MacArthur's staff in the

Southwest Pacific Theater The South West Pacific theatre, during World War II, was a major theatre of the war between the Allies and the Axis. It included the Philippines, the Dutch East Indies (except for Sumatra), Borneo, Australia and its mandate Territory of ...

. He was granted American citizenship for his wartime services and remained an American citizen until his death.

Death

Soriano died on December 30, 1964, at

Massachusetts General Hospital Massachusetts General Hospital (Mass General or MGH) is the original and largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School located in the West End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is the third oldest general hospital in the United Stat ...

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts.

References

External links

A. Soriano Corporation

The Andres Soriano Foundation

40 Richest Filipinos – Moneysense.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soriano, Andres Falangists 20th-century Spanish businesspeople Filipino people of Spanish descent People from San Miguel, Manila Secretaries of Finance of the Philippines Secretaries of Agriculture of the Philippines Secretaries of Trade and Industry of the Philippines 1898 births 1964 deaths Deaths from pancreatic cancer San Miguel Corporation people Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation people Ateneo de Manila University alumni People educated at Stonyhurst College Quezon administration cabinet members Filipino company founders 20th-century Filipino businesspeople