by Lito on February 18, 2008
While I was reading the Entrepreneur magazine, two Filipino Chinese entrepreneurs caught my attention. One is
Mr. Cecilio Kwok Pedro the toothpaste magnate and the other
Mr. Alfredo M. Yao the self made fruit drink magnate. The reason is because of their decisions that turned disappointments into an opportunity. The first one I want to discuss is
Mr. Cecilio Kwok Pedro. He is the President and CEO of Lamoiyan Corp. which is the first Filipino company who penetrated the Philippine Toothpaste market.
That market was dominated by big foreign companies ( those that produce Colgate and Close-up). Now Happee toothpaste ranks no 3 in the toothpaste brand. Because of that success he was able to diversify his products into dish washing soaps, liquid detergents, fabric enhancers and other gum formula tooth paste.
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by Lito on February 13, 2008
I’m sure every Filipino know the brand name
Mama Sita. If I’m not mistaken they are the pioneer of ready-made sauces and mixes of Filipino dishes like kare-kare mix, sinigang mix, kaldereta mix, barbecue marinades, palabok mix and many others. It started when Mrs. Teresita
“Mama Sita” Reyes’ desire to give her grandchildren living in the United States to eat Filipino dishes because all her grandchildren wants to eat are hamburgers and hotdogs. Maybe she wanted also to cultivate some Filipino culture on her grandchildren because there are many kinds of food for them to choose in the U.S. besides hamburgers and hotdogs. Anyway that desire motivates her and her children which gave them an idea to make ingredients which they can easily bring outside the country so those Filipinos living there can have a chance to eat Pinoy dishes with convenience. They then setup a company named “Mama Sita” and the first product they made is the “Biglang Sinigang”. For those who were not familiar with sinigang, its a Filipino dish of boiled pork in sour broth using tamarind juice as the main ingredient for it’s unique taste and added with spices and vegetables. There are also variation aside from pork which is beef, prawns, milk fish or bangus and other marine fishes.
The “Biglang Siningang” is made from tamarind and formed into a paste. It’s not easy to find tamarind in the states back then so those who wish to make ’sinigang’ used lemon to make it sour. Maybe today you will find tamarind coming from other parts of Asia like for example in Thailand. Even in our local supermarkets you can see tamarind from Thailand and is more expensive than the local ones. So with the help of Mama Sita’s son-in-law which she called by the name “Henyo”(’genius’ in english) they created the formula to make the ‘Biglang Sinigang’ which started the long and tasty success story of Mama Sita.
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by Lito on January 2, 2008
I guess every Filipino knows this bakeshop. Now it has become a common bakeshop with more than 500 stores serving every Filipinos. The owner, Julie Gandionco and her sons as far as I remember was already featured on some TV shows. But little that we know how it started from a humble beginning.
The Julie’s Bakeshop story is the kind that hits close to home, particularly because it was born out of the needs of a family which something most people can relate to. When she was already 47, Julie Gandioco’s duties as a mother were becoming less and less demanding. Her children - Bobby, Rico and Opep were already in college, and the rest Oding, Neil and Patty were in high school. her kid’s educational expenses were going up and her husband’s sugar farm was not doing well. So she thought that there were something that she must do to help her husband.
The Opportunity Knocks
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by Lito on November 22, 2007
I wanted to share with you this newsletter from Mike Litman about a Billionaire’s success story. I’m sure very few know the name Deitrich Mateschitz. I even have a hard time pronouncing it. But if I say Red Bull, the energy drink then maybe this sounds familiar to you. This is a popular energy drink here in the Philippines. I once thought that this came from a Filipino manufacturer but since I read Mr Litman’s story, now I know that this came from the U.S.A. So without much ado here is the story:
Hey Lito!
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by Lito on November 17, 2007
Did you now what company manufactured the first bottled water in the Philippines? I didn’t know also until I came across of the video of Go Negosyo Big Time TV show when they interviewed the Mr. Jose Antonio “Che” Soler, the President of Solarex Solerex Water Technology. it started with Solarex Water Technology, a water treatment firm. According to him, since there are no legitimate companies around with regards to bottled water, he decided to put up a small plant.
He invited the members of BFAD as pilot training and from there he registered the plant. His father came up with the name Crystal Clear and little that he know that it became a legitimate business. He also mentioned the types of bottles water like Purified, Spring, Natural and Mineral. There are many things he mentioned during the interview which you can learn something just clicking the Youtube video below:
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