TWO FOR THE SME ROAD

By Celia R. Pascual

            Ana and Rufino “Boy” Manrique took a road less traveled early in their relationship before they crossed over a more conventional path.  One that led to entrepreneurship.

            Today, they manage not one, not two, but three SMEs (small and medium enterprises).
           
            The Manrique couple started and now manages Moonbake, which produces chocolate crinkles, ube crinkles, bread and other baked products; Moondish, a canning factory that turns out canned laing, Bicol express, camansi, ginataang halo-halo, guinataang mais; and Starglow, the local marketing arm of Moonbake.

            Ana and Boy met while working for the less privileged.  “Just say we were into social work,” Boy laughs when pressed to explain what they did.  When their  daughters started growing up, both decided it was high time they thought about settling down as a family.

Both had barely a year of office work experience.  Boy worked with his father while Ana worked briefly with the Laguna Lake Development Authority.  They realized that after many years of serving the poor, it would be difficult  to go back to regular office jobs. 

            Early on, they tried selling toys at the Big Bang in Alabang.  In time, they decided they would not go very far by selling products that were seasonal in demand.

            Ana’s mother then suggested opening a bakery  in their Las Piñas residence.  Their place was near a  subdivision and a commercial area that had yet no bakeshop.  While they did not know the first thing about baking, they decided to make a go for it.

            The couple started preparing themselves for business by learning to bake.  Boy enrolled in a commercial baking seminar at the Philippine Women’s University while Ana participated in weekend seminars at the Bakers Institute and the baking seminar conducted by Sylvia Reynoso. Both attended food demonstrations  to improve their knowledge of the business.

            Thus, after a few months and with  50 thousand pesos capital borrowed from a friend, they opened Moonbake in 1991 right in their house at Moonwalk Village.  The name of the business combined the name of their subdivision and their product line. 

            At the start, there was Boy and Ana, Ana’s parents, a seller, a baker and an empty garage turned into a production area.    The baker used the ‘takal takal’ way  he had been used to  even as Boy tried to share with him his new, more modern knowledge on baking technology.  They sold pan de sal, pan de coco and Spanish bread to neighbors and sari-sari stores in their area.

            Moonbake gradually got off the ground.  In time, the business employed 200 people, grossed 25 million pesos yearly, and expanded its market to include Pampanga, Bulacan and Batangas. 

            More products were offered like chocolate crinkles, chocolate-based products and other cookies.  They hired salesmen to deliver  to school canteens in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.

            Business was brisk  until 1997 when the cost of raw materials went up and the supply of sugar grew scarce.  The rising cost of  production and the growing competition in the area was hurting the business.  Thus, Moonbake’s sales and profit began to drop.
           
            The shrinking domestic market prompted the couple to look beyond local boundaries.  They sought the assistance of  the Department of Trade and Industry’s Philippine Development and Design Center of the Philippines to jazz up their mediocre packaging.  They also joined national trade fairs to increase their product exposure.  In these ways, Moonbake products began to spruce up for export.   

            Next, they tried product diversification.  They started looking for other products they could develop.They inquired from the  U.P. College of Home Economics in Diliman and Los Baños and the Department of Science and Terchnology and its allied agencies. 

            Boy enrolled in the “Rehabilitation of Distressed Industrries,” a course offered at the U.P Institute for Small-Scale Industries.  Applying what he learned, he diagnosed their operations.  The process led to the establishment of Starglow as Moonbake’s marketing arm.  He and Ana researched market trends and explored promising new products.

            These researches enforced Boy’s gut feel that exporting was the way to go.  Both went to the Food and Nutrition Research Institute, an agency of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST).  The FNRI had a  lineup of products for commercial infusion, like canned pinakbet, sinigang  mix, lumpia sauce, canned laing, and catsup.  Almost intuitively, they chose none of these. 

Unfazed, they visited the Industrial Technology Development Institute (ITDI), another agency of the DOST, where they learned about vacuum fried tahong.

            The vacuum fried tahong looked and tasted “exotic” to them.  They liked it enough to conduct a pilot run using the vacuum fryer at the ITDI pilot plant in Taguig.  When they incurred a 100 thousand peso loss, they realized it was not the product for them.

Doggedly, they went back to review the array of products for commercial  infusion.  It was at DOST that they stumbled on laing, a Bicolano dish cooked in coconut cream, seasoned with ginger and shrimp paste and spiked with siling labuyo. 

Although what they tasted was nine-month-old canned laing,  Ana and Boy were impressed.   They were convinced about its market potential. After more researches and experimenting,including environmental scanning, their hard work paid off.   Their canned laing was well received at the First Asian Ethnic Food Festival  organized by the Center for International Trade Exposition Mission (CITEM) and the Philippine Trade and Training Center (PTTC) in November 1999.

            They coined the name Moondish for all their canned products.  It complemented Moonbake, which continued to be the name by which their baked products were known.  Canned laing soon became their “star” product.  “It made our cash registers ring merrily,” beams Ana.   

            They established Moondish in 1999, with separate accounting and operation but still under Moonbake.

            Moondish started exporting canned laing to Guam in 2001.  Around 70 per cent of their production is exported to the Middle East, Canada, USA, Europe and Guam.  Only 30  per cent ends up in the local market.  Ana says, “ Initially, our sales was around 300 thousand pesos.  Now, sales has climbed to 30 million.  “And laing is our star seller, “ beams Boy.

            In all three companies, Boy is the President and Ana is the Vice-President for Operations.  Boy continues to be on top of baking operations and Ana oversees the canning operations at Moondish.  They consult one another when problems arise.

            Their advice for couples in business:  Learn as much as you can about the business.  Do your research. Study the market.  Do not hesitate to interview. Get facts.  Be innovative and consultative.  Network and join associations.

            They might as well add:  know that there’s a season for taking care of your own as there’s a time for reaching out to others.