Creating Meaningful
Breakthroughs
Since the earliest roots of the Gokongwei Group were formed in the 1950s, our companies have been driven by a profound commitment to making lives better. At the heart of the Group’s continuing legacy is our entrepreneurial spirit that allows us to disrupt industries, spur innovation, and challenge established norms, guided by the entrepreneurial spirit of our founder, the late John Gokongwei, Jr.
The Gokongwei Group ("Group") is a collective reference to the various enterprises/companies, established by the Gokongwei Family, involved in diversified businesses in the Philippines and the ASEAN region. The Group includes JG Summit Holdings, Inc. together with its respective subsidiaries and affiliates, Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, and the Group's philanthropic arm, the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation, among other business entities.
Universal Robina Corporation was hatched from Mr. John's desire to offer Filipinos better food choices. Robinsons Land emerged as a response to the pressing need for decent and affordable housing options. And when Cebu Pacific took flight, it introduced pocket-friendly fares that democratized air travel for countless individuals.
Growing exponentially from a single department store opened in 1980, Robinsons Retail Holdings is now the country’s second-largest multi-format retailer, with its highly diverse brands offering a wide spectrum of customers a delightful shopping experience with quality products and services.
The Gokongwei Group continues to shake up the status quo with ventures such as GoTyme Bank, which aims to help Filipinos unleash their financial power through easy digital banking combined with highly personalized customer service.
The Gokongwei Brothers Foundation celebrates more than three decades of championing education in the Philippines, supporting thousands of underprivileged yet deserving students in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, for the goal of sustainable national development.
Throughout all these endeavors, the Gokongwei Group is bound by a common thread and remains steadfast in its Purpose – An unrelenting commitment to provide our customers with better choices, creating shared success with our stakeholders. In doing so, we hope to create meaningful breakthroughs that make lives better.
Purpose
An unrelenting commitment to provide our customers with better choices, creating shared success with our stakeholders.
Values
Entrepreneurial Mindset
We strive for growth with a resilient, passionate, and agile mindset with focus on living out our purpose to provide our customers with better choices.
Stewardship
We are fully responsible for the resources entrusted to us, be they financial, environmental, or people. We make sure that they are managed well and cared for, all with sustainability at the forefront.
Integrity
We will act with honor in all our undertakings and with all our stakeholders, upholding the principle of always doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do, even when no one else is watching.
In the coming years, the Gokongwei Group aims to solidify its position
among the
largest conglomerates in the Philippines.
Our Founder: Mr. John Gokongwei Jr.
Known in the Philippines as a pioneering entrepreneur, industrialist, and philanthropist, John Gokongwei Jr., or Mr. John as he was fondly called, was one of the country’s most influential business leaders. His life story showed how grit, creativity, resilience, and a willingness to take bold risks helped build the Gokongwei Group into a diversified business group that has contributed to nation-building and to the everyday lives of Filipinos.
Mr. John was unafraid to venture into highly competitive industries or enter fields where few expected a newcomer to succeed. This made him widely recognized as an “industrialist challenger” and disruptor. Through the decades, he expanded the family business into companies that challenged the status quo and became major players in their respective fields.
Born on August 11, 1926, to John Gokongwei Sr. and Juanita Marquez Lim, Mr. John was only 13 years old when his father died. With debts left behind and a family to help support, he took on responsibilities far beyond his age as the eldest of six children. Even then, his instinct for entrepreneurship had already begun to emerge. He started by selling garlic-cooked peanuts to his classmates and later rode his bicycle to the public market to sell candles, soap, and thread.
He later brought his wares from Cebu to Lucena, Quezon by wooden boat, then by truck to Manila. Together with his siblings, he also worked in importing vegetables, newspapers, magazines, and used clothing from the United States.
These early efforts would grow into a larger family enterprise. While Mr. John’s vision and drive shaped its direction, he was joined by his siblings Henry, Johnson, Eddie, James, and Lily, whose contributions helped strengthen the foundations of the family business. Their shared effort, discipline, and commitment helped carry the business from trading into more ambitious ventures, setting the stage for its move into manufacturing.
That shift came in 1956, when Mr. John started Universal Corn Products, a corn milling plant that produced glucose and cornstarch. This became the predecessor of Universal Robina Corporation (URC) and marked the beginning of the Gokongwei Group. He also established Consolidated Foods Corporation and its first brand, Blend 45, which became the first locally manufactured instant coffee blend. Mr. John later ventured into poultry, hog products, and animal feeds under Robina Farms.
Today, Universal Robina Corporation is one of the largest branded consumer food and beverage companies in the Philippines. Its businesses include the production and distribution of branded consumer snack foods and beverages, commodities such as sugar and flour, and agro-industrial products including hogs, animal feed, and other related businesses.
Mr. John’s move into retail and property also began to take shape in the 1970s and 1980s. One of the Group’s early property-related ventures was in hospitality, including Manila Midtown Hotel, before its real estate business became more formally established through Robinsons Land Corporation. In the 1980s, he also established Robinsons Ermita in Manila. What started as a single department store has grown into an expansive network of more than 4,000 stores nationwide under Robinsons Retail Holdings, Inc. (RRHI), one of the largest multi-format retailers in the Philippines. Its portfolio includes supermarkets and convenience stores, department stores, drugstores, do-it-yourself stores, consumer electronics and appliance stores, and specialty stores.
The Group’s real estate business gained greater scale and structure with Robinsons Land Corporation, which was incorporated in 1980 and later listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange in 1989. Its expansion gained further momentum in 1990 with the opening of Robinsons Galleria, a landmark development that became one of the country’s first fully integrated mixed-use developments.
As the businesses grew larger and more diversified, he brought greater structure to the broader Group through JG Summit Holdings Inc., the family’s holding company, which was listed on the Philippine Stock Exchange in 1993.
Mr. John’s instinct for disruptive innovation continued in the mid-1990s with the launch of Cebu Pacific Air, which pioneered the budget airline model in the Philippines. In an industry long seen as upscale and expensive, Cebu Pacific helped change the way Filipinos traveled by offering budget-friendly fares and highly affordable promotions. Air travel became accessible to many more Filipinos, helping open new opportunities for tourism, business, family visits, and mobility across the country. Today, Cebu Pacific is the biggest player in the local airline industry and has helped drive the growth of Philippine aviation.
By the turn of the millennium, the Gokongwei Group again entered a highly competitive industry, this time in telecommunications through Sun Cellular. The venture reflected Mr. John’s enduring challenger mindset, with his youngest brother Mr. James Go playing a key role in translating that vision into reality. Sun Cellular challenged the country’s largest telcos with more affordable, customer-centered offerings, leaving a lasting mark on the industry. By the time local telecommunications giant PLDT bought Sun Cellular, it was the third-largest mobile operator in the Philippines. It also showed that telcos could offer more value at lower cost to a wider market.
Another bold move that Mr. John supported was the introduction of C2 Green Tea. Launched by URC in 2004, C2 was the country’s first ready-to-drink brewed green tea and introduced Filipinos to a healthier and more refreshing alternative to sugary sodas and powdered drinks. It helped build a tea-drinking culture among young Filipinos and normalized the idea that bottled drinks could be both convenient and health-conscious. As URC expanded outside the Philippines and across Asia, C2 also entered markets such as Vietnam and Indonesia, adapting its strategy to local tastes.
By the time Mr. John turned 80, he had donated half of his personal holdings to the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation (GBF), the philanthropic arm of the Gokongwei Group that he and his brothers Henry, Johnson, and James established. Today, GBF is one of the country’s largest private sector providers of scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education for underprivileged students.
For his many contributions to business, nation-building, and the lives of Filipinos, Mr. John received several major honors, including the Management Association of the Philippines Management Man of the Year Award and the ASEAN Legacy Award in 2017.
Mr. John Gokongwei Jr. passed away in 2019 at the age of 93, but his legacy of perseverance, resilience, innovation, and shared family effort continues through the work of his family, the professionals, and the employees of the Gokongwei Group. Together, they carry forward the commitment to provide better choices of products and services to customers and to help make lives better.
Our Leaders
James L. Go: A Distinct Perspective on the Gokongwei Group Evolution
James L. Go has shaped the Gokongwei Group from an unparalleled vantage point—side by side with its founder, inside its factories, and across the boardrooms where its next chapters were formed. An MIT-trained chemical engineer, lifelong learner, and self-effacing steward, Mr. James has spent more than six decades strengthening and anchoring the Group on timeless fundamentals, discipline, and a clear sense of responsibility to its stakeholders.
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Lance Y. Gokongwei: Leading the Gokongwei Group with Purpose and Innovation
Lance Y. Gokongwei, head of the Gokongwei Group, leads a powerhouse of businesses anchored by two major conglomerates — JG Summit Holdings, where he serves as President and CEO, and Robinsons Retail Holdings — driving economic progress in the Philippines and an expanding footprint across Southeast Asia.
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