MANILA, Philippines — People old enough would remember Behrouz Mojdeh for his nondescript corner stall on Timog Ave. in Quezon City and its beef and lamb kebabs served with a generous slathering of home-made yoghurt and grilled tomatoes.

This was more than two decades ago, an era in Philippine history when young Iranians and Jordanians sought refuge here from their homelands to escape repressive political regimes and conflicts.

The young Behrouz then, perhaps more homesick for the companionship of his countrymen and its food, would start a fire in his grill late in the afternoon and lay on the skewered meats. The flavorful aroma would bring in the customers, most of them compatriots and Middle Easterns.

There would be basmati rice with butter or flat bread with humus to go with the herbed kebabs, comfort food for people who had left their families and traveled half the globe to seek new fortunes. As a sort of bonus, there would be the stories from home, food for the soul to stave off the loneliness.

In the early years, Behrouz was content to earn just enough to keep the operations sustainable. But later, with a Filipina wife and two children plus the fact that many of his foreign friends were returning to their respective countries or simply moving on, the need to keep the grill alive became an imperative.

Modj, Behrouz’s only son, remembers his dad giving away free samplers to Filipinos who would care to even glance at the kebabs. The questions would come next, fast and furious, eagerly imbibing precious feedback on how Persian cuisine could become more acceptable to the local palate.

Slowly, with adjustments here and there, Behrouz’s clients grew to appreciate the food. It was still being sold at a stall with no name, and those who had heard about his Persian dishes would call him Kuya, a familiar face with a nondescript name that stuck for some time.

When the Timog stall was demolished to give way to a commercial building, Behrouz moved to a nearby apartment unit along Sct. Tobias St. It was here that his kebabs already adapted to the Filipino taste buds, acquired its famed notoriety, bringing in queues of hungry customers eager for more. Here too, the nameless stall acquired a name: Behrouz Persian Cuisine.

“It seemed such a fine name,” says Modj, who at that time was already a college student. In Iranian, it meant “one bright day,” an apt description to the steadily growing business and to a father he was fiercely devoted to.

In between classes, Modj would help out at Behrouz — buying only the freshest ingredients, coordinating delivery of ample supplies, manning the huge grill, even serving at the tables. It left his father with more time to talk to old and new patrons, to continuously refine and improve on the menu.

After graduation, Modj, born Mohammad Harold de Leon Mojdeh, took on even more responsibilities in running the business. By this time, Behrouz had taken over the whole apartment row to accommodate the ever growing number of diners.

MOST IMPORTANT LESSON. For Modj, nothing parallels the value of personalized service that he learned from his dad and founder of Behrouz Persian Cuisine in bringing customers to the restaurant. By being able to adapt Persian food to the taste buds of Filipinos, Behrouz has become a byword in the Filipino’s multi-cultural smorgasbord.

NEW IDEAS, NEW LESSONS

As Modj found himself enjoying the challenge of managing the business, his father became more supportive. When a friend offered a partnership for their first branch to be located in the rapidly expanding Libis commercial area located on the eastern fringes of Quezon City, father and son agreed.

The new outlet did well but the friends’ relationship did not; in the end, to keep their friendship, Modj and partner decided to end the business. On his own, and with his father’s financing, Modj opened another branch outside but adjacent the Libis area. It did not do well and eventually closed.

Modj had lost money, but it taught the eager young man a few basic lessons in doing business, including the value of finding the right location. Behrouz opened next on Wilson St. in the Greenhills commercial area in San Juan, then at the Metrowalk complex in Pasig City. Both continue to do well.

To keep an eye on all three busy outlets, Modj has learned to divide his time during the week. “The business demands personal attention,” he says. He juggles his evening watch, which continues to be the restaurant’s peak hours, to keep an eye on staff and also to actively solicit feedback from customers.

One of the new ideas he has brought to the business is the expanded serving hours. “We received a lot of suggestions to open for lunch,” Modj says. He had also introduced nipa huts just large enough to cover a table and chairs: “This is part of the ‘Filipinization’ of Behrouz,” says Modj.

Other than improvisations designed to create a more pleasant dining experience, Modj is also learning about how to improve the business model. “We used to have a bakery for the flat breads,” he says. They now rely on sub-contractors for the supply, in the process freeing the restaurant to focus on the core dishes.

They have also purchased a farm in Tagaytay which would soon supply the increasing volume of vegetables needed by the outlets. And they have also started to breed and raise lamb, a plan that hopefully will insulate Behrouz from the instability of the meat’s supply and prices.

“I still defer to my dad for every major decision that has to be made,” Modj says, although he had never found any incident where they differed. At the time of the interview, Modj was single-handedly running the show, his father having gone to Iran for a much-needed break.

Like his dad, he would linger at the tables and ask people for suggestions on how to improve the food and service. It’s a habit he has picked through the years, seeing how it has helped the business grow.

With the Internet, Modj is trying to keep up with the technology. Admitting he is not partial to cyberspace technology, he has asked his wife to monitor feedback from the popular food blogs and review sites. These, he says, have also provided valuable insights.

Customers, who are now his friends, would ask him where his duty for the night would be. Modj happily obliges with the information, basking in the knowledge that the personal attention he has been giving the business is much appreciated.

MANILA, Philippines — Information technology continues to be a powerful marketing medium that finds new converts everyday. It should then be no surprise that feng shui, an ancient Chinese practice that divines life forces and has survived more than 3,500 years, would find in this modern-age technology a staunch ally.

In the Philippines, WOFS Philippines, Inc. found the Internet, webcasts, netcasts, television, text messaging, and even e-commerce as essential tools in bringing across its messages of prosperity and luck, which in turn has brought wealth and good fortune to the local business.

WOFS (for World of Feng Shui) Philippines is the local franchise of the global WOFS of Malaysia, which is chaired by feng shui celebrity Lillian Too, author of over a hundred books that has been translated in 45 languages and sold to over 10 million readers worldwide.

In 1998, WOFS started WOFS.com, reputedly the first online feng shui magazine that has now grown into an extensive portal resource offering easy to read and understand articles on feng shui. The website, according to WOFS Philippines franchise owner Marites Allen, receives around two million hits a month.

The immense popularity that the website enjoys is reflected in the phenomenal growth of the WOFS network worldwide, which includes specialized boutiques in over 19 countries, and thousands of feng shui-related products and publications.

In the Philippines, Marites opened her first WOFS shop last November 2004 at the ground floor of the Podium in Ortigas. “Since then, our 57-square meter boutique has achieved a substantial record of sales and attracted many thousands of feng shui followers into the Podium.

GHOST MONTH REMINDERS. E-mail and text messages about how best to protect yourself during the ghost month, the 7th Chinese lunar month from August 1 to 31, are a few of the IT tools that the World of Feng Shui uses to make people aware of this ancient Chinese practice. In photo, a display of various “remedies” useful to protect oneself during the Hungry Ghost Festival at the WOFS boutique in the Podium. Photo taken by INQUIRER.net business editor CHUPSIE MEDINA.

“In fact, we actually hold the record for achieving the highest daily sales per square meter of floor area ever at the Podium during this year,” Marites says. The local franchise has added six more, located at SM Mall of Asia, The Block at SM City North EDSA, SM City Cebu, Serendra, Glorietta IV and New Manila.

The fast growth of WOFS in the Philippines, though, is the result of meticulous planning and painstaking preparation that includes almost non-stop work especially when the Chinese New Year is coming.

Formerly chief executive of a Manila-based call center, Marites says she barely knew anything about the retailing business, an essential element in spreading the gospel of feng shui.

Her first boutique was a sort of hobby to help people find what they needed when heeding feng shui readings. “At first, stocks I bought that I though would be good for six months would all be bought in four weeks,” says Marites. This made her give the retail shop business more serious study.

As a franchise of WOFS of Malaysia, the boutiques are far from any run-of-the-mill feng shui shop. “The World of Feng Shui brand makes a difference to stand out,” Marites says.

“Regardless of the presence of hundreds of different feng shui shops around competing with us at the shopping malls or at China Town, I believe we have some products such as Almanac, LT Horoscope, etc, that can only be bought at our shop,” she says.

That, plus the fact that Lillian Too, a former chairman of the Hong Kong-based Dao Heng Bank, has taken pains to develop products that would stand out. Pendants or rings, for example, are finely crafted jewelry usually in 18 karat gold decked with diamonds or semi-precious stones. Add to that messages of love, wealth and happiness, and such intentions make the items priceless.

Marites has also tapped National Bookstore, all of its 108 branches all over the country, in selling feng shui books. She says some of the WOFS Chinese New Year books sell so well, that “in effect, I give up quite a large number of commissions to them.”

The books’ presence in the nationwide chain of bookstores, though, helps create more awareness of feng shui. “In a way, they do the effort of marketing the product for me in the places or cities we can’t reach,” says Marites.

During the lean months, before and after the Chinese New Year, WOFS Philippines works doubly hard to keep interest and patronage alive. “Every June to November, I conduct a free consultation every beginning of the month per boutique so people come,” Marites says.

“For example, I have a session on how to create a wealth vase. I not only sell a wealth vase kit, I also get to sell the other things that would go inside the wealth vase like the crystal diamonds, etc.,” she says.

In preparing for the ghost month of August, for example, WOFS with the SM Malls lined up several talks. Marites also utilizes her columns and television show to discuss what (and what not) to do during the month. The franchisee also uses the netcast facility of a telecommunications provider as well as a marketing company to send out e-mails, SMS based on e-mails, and website announcements.

Discounts are also a valuable marketing tool. The WOFS mid-year sale inventory gives as high as a 50-percent discount to the buyers, for example, on any Almanac unsold after May 2008. “We also tie it up with another saleable product, like an ang pao coin or something,” Marites says.

WOFS has also a tie up with a credit card company all year round. If they use the credit card, clients gets an automatic 10 percent discount.

During special days like Father’s Day, Mother’s Day, or even opening school day, the WOFS marketing team and operations come up with recommended gift list. “Say for Father’s Day, they have a ruyi at a reduced price tied up with a fast moving item,” the WOFS proprietor says.

Marites also introduced www.maritesallen.com, her personality website, to complement WOFS.com. “We shall soon be launching too the Philippine e-commerce side of the business, www.mywealthluck.com,” the energetic WOFS Philippines chief executive says.

“I have also invested quiet a lot on the Marites Allen show, where people write to me and I give them free advice,” she says. The response has been phenomenal, especially among Filipinos working overseas. For Marites, this is a chance for viewers to know where to find her shops and get more advice, which in turn creates “more chances to sell our products.”

WOFS has also a tie up with Smart Communications to carry a daily SMS astrology. This is another chance to advertise the WOFS brand, Marites says. She has also introduced a loyalty program and an annual extravaganza “where I give forecasts on what to expect and how to prepare ourselves, and an update of feng shui for our homes, offices, buildings, etc. for the coming Chinese New Year.

“This is definitely the busiest time of the year, and in fact even if you don’t do any marketing campaigns during this time, people will just flood our stores and flood us with inquiries,” she says.

For Marites, her belief in feng shui had led her on a road she had least expected to pursue. After several personal misfortunes in her early 20s while in Lahug in the southern island of Mactan, Cebu, she had consulted her feng shui and moved to Manila.

After meeting Lillian Too in Honolulu while on vacation in February of 2004, Marites was invited to visit her in Malaysia. Then, when Lillian asked her whether she would care to build the WOFS franchise in the Philippines, she happily agreed. The rest is history.

Useful links:
WOFS.com (www.wofs.com)
www.maritesallen.com

MANILA, Philippines — Geronimo and Beth Casas are currently riding on the growing popularity of the food cart business, which is why their store along busy Kamuning Road continues to be crammed with all sorts of brightly colored vending stores on wheels or stands.

The orders still come in, long since 1998 when they had their first order to design and fabricate a portable food stall for a client who wanted to set up a snack business catering to the busy students of the University of the Philippines in Quezon City.

Manufacturing food carts, however, has grown to be a highly competitive business in recent years especially when franchising became the buzzword among micro and small businesses. “We’ve resorted to advertising in ‘Buy and Sell,’” says Beth, taking advantage of the popularity of this twice-weekly publication.

Advertising has been a new tool for this mom-and-pop partnership that started in 1987. Previously, simply showcasing their wares along Kamuning Road had been good enough to build and grow G.N.C. Enterprises, a single proprietorship that bears in the initials of Geronimo.

Even as the paid ads are bringing in a modest growth in the business, Beth and Geronimo still believe it is the quality of their products, the before- and after-sales service that they provide, and their unflinching support for the aspiring entrepreneur-food cart owners/operators that are the bedrock of their continuing patronage.

Plus toss in more than two decades of the couple’s experience, perhaps even a lifetime for 48-year old Beth. As a young girl, Beth had been helping out her father’s oven fabrication business. She remembers her folks riding on another food fad: hot pandesal.

Beth’s initiation to the business had been to order materials that would go in putting together an oven. Then, she would watch welders joining steel and bending galvanized iron sheets. She learned too how to bake pandesal since her father would teach prospective oven owners how to mix dough and bake them.

When Beth and Geronimo, then a senior civil engineering student, married, both stayed on with the family business by being useful in whatever way. It proved to be a priceless opportunity for Geronimo when the couple decided to open their own shop in a relative’s garage.

“Nangutang kami sa bumbay,” Bess says. With P10,000 borrowed from informal lenders, husband and wife bought their first welding machine. Then they pawned an old car that was owned by Geronimo’s parents for P14,000 as capital to buy supplies.

They set aside P100 a day as payment on the unsecured loan, and saved whatever extra earning they could squeeze out from fabrication orders. In less than a year, they were debt-free, had gotten back the car’s registration papers, and were ready to take their budding business to a new level.

In 1988, the shawarma craze hit Manila. A prospective client approached them to fabricate a shawarma rotisserie based on an imported model that was already operating in one of the metropolis’ malls.

At the shawarma outlet, Geronimo poked and pried, trying to understand how the rotisserie worked. Bess, on the other hand, sat in a nearby corner furiously drawing to the best of her ability the various features of the rotisserie. When they got home, the couple plus their team of workers started to work.

In less than a month, the first locally fabricated shawarma rotisserie was operational. Soon, they were being deluged by orders. “The bank thought we were robbers,” says Beth of the amounts of money that they were depositing in their account every banking day.

With the business bonanza, the couple moved their garage operations to a newly bought lot. They retained the bakery operations that was included in the property and expanded it as a training area for their baking equipment customers.

Customer service has been a unique selling proposition of G.N.C. Every oven, rotisserie, or food cart that is sold, Beth says they make sure that will be someone who will troubleshoot any problem that is received. “Even if it’s in the far north, just as long as we don’t cross any waters, we will send a man,” says Beth.

They also continued the tradition started by Beth’s father of training people on how to use the equipment. “We even give the names of suppliers: where to get flour for the baked pandesal, meat and spices for the shawarma,” says Beth.

In the food cart side of the business, they help clients come up with a practical and workable design. “We ask them what they want to sell and come up with suggestions of how their cart could look like,” says Beth.

They now even help in dressing up the food carts with tarps or stickers that are they too had helped design. This one-stop shop concept has helped keep them abreast with their competitors in food cart fabrication.

“It’s pricing which is really our biggest challenge,” says Beth. Some customers had pointed out that other fabricators sell at lower prices. But Beth is quick to respond that whatever they churn out of their shop, it will always be consistent on quality standards.

The long years in the industry has taught Beth a most valuable lesson: that to be able to weather fads and competition, it is never wise to scrimp on materials and quality of work. “We have weathered the years because we never succumbed to cutting corners. Even when our best workers were pirated by others, we knew that we would always continue to grow, and this has been proven time and again,” says Beth.

What does she advice those who would want to start their own business? “Tiyaga at tipid,” she says. Perseverance, Beth says, helped them take that first loan to where the business is now; and thrift – or keeping their needs as simple as possible — has made it possible for the couple to keep the business growing.

BRAVO! INDIO. Right from college, Kristine Soguilon decided to chart entrepreneurship waters. By badgering friends and relatives to give her advice on how to start and run a business, Kristine formed Indios Bravos Multimedia. Today, she’s thinking big.

MANILA, Philippines — Starting a business was not what young Kristine Soguilon had originally intended to do. Already a professional photographer even before graduating college in 2007, she initially expressed her desire to build a career as a freelancer to advertising agencies, business firms and magazine publishers.

It was a world where she felt gratified. To see her ideas, her work on the cover of a glossy or an advertisement was more than enough to warm her heart.

But to her father, being a freelance photographer was not good enough for his only child. And so he goaded her: Hanggang freelance ka lang pala! By challenging Kristine to look beyond being always dependent on client assignments and demands, Indios Bravos Multimedia was born.

“I’ve always liked the words,” Kristine says. A cum laude graduate from the University of the Philippines, she grew a kinship with the phrase. For her, it stood out as the Filipino’s badge of courage, popularized by Jose Rizal in the late 1800s, and yet still finding relevance in today’s digitized age.

With her savings and a sizeable loan from relatives abroad, Kristine took to the streets to scout for a studio that would be home to her new business. She found two commercial units that had been repossessed by the bank, and was being sold at a very cheap price.

SETTING UP

She then went shopping for her full-fledged studio’s equipment — floor to ceiling multi-color backdrops, strobes, umbrellas, reflectors, lights, and a television monitor. “I got good discounts on them,” Kristine says. This substantially reduced her budget, helping her bring down her set-up cost to below P1 million.

With help from her mom who was involved in the construction business, Kristine tailor-fit one unit to become a high-ceilinged work space for serious photographers. The other unit was transformed into an office that exuded a relaxing and soothing atmosphere. For the layout of the area, that included a dressing room, waiting area, and pantry, advice came from an interior designer friend.

Simultaneously, she started working on registering the proprietorship with the relevant government offices. “I was very dependent on my uncle who’s a businessman,” Kristine says. Every rough patch, even when getting her business permit at the local city hall, would see Kristine on her cell phone listening intently to step-by-step instructions from her tito.

In December 2007, three months after she had purchased her units, Kristine threw a small party to inaugurate the newly furbished studio. She felt fierce pride in having accomplished such a gargantuan undertaking. And yet she knew that there was more work ahead to sustain what she started.

Kristine relied once again on her uncle to teach her the basics of running a business. “He told me to list down all the expenses that went into setting up the office. Then he taught me how to make a business plan. So far, we’re surviving,” then quickly corrects herself. “No, we’re doing fine.”

By having the cheapest rates in Makati, the studio is fully booked well into 2009. This has helped secure overhead costs that now include an account executive, who goes after clients, and other office staff. Kristine still goes out to make presentations to prospective clients, but has set her sights on other things.

EXPANDING TO OTHERS

Having her first break with a popular music magazine during her college years, Kristine found herself with a vast resource of contacts in the performing industry, to be specific, with bands. She’s ecstatic about managing events now for big corporate clients like San Miguel.

She has projects lined up till next year, one that includes a summer Boracay event that promises to be a big hit. She enjoys organizing and putting together the shows that are assigned to her, as well as bringing home the check. “Events (organizing) is easy to do, and is good money,” Kristine says.

The next big step is incorporating the business, which till today she personally owns a hundred percent. The objective, she says, is to be able to expand the scope of the business to other things.

While sinking her teeth in the intricacies of building a business, Kristine does not forget to personally develop herself. As a photographer, her strength had been for the longest time in taking shots of people. Now, she’s bent on mastering all, but taking things one step at a time. For the moment, she’s become obsessed with food photography.

What sets her apart from most other youths her age? “I believe in myself,” Kristine says. “If you say ‘it can’t be done,’ it won’t be done. If you say ‘it can be done,’ it will be done.” When she says she sees her business growing bigger, you better believe her.

Useful link: Indios Bravos Multimedia (www.indios-bravos.com)

ADDING VALUE. For Anjo Farms, staying in business meant coming up with new products for the market. With a fresh loan from the government’s Agricultural Competitive Enhance Fund, Anjo retooled its milkfish processing plant in Pangasinan to now produce TV dinners. Then, in view of the weak dollar, they refocused sales to the local market from overseas.

MANILA, Philippines — On a 24-hectare property in San Fabian, Pangasinan, Apolonio “Pons” Tanjangco and his partner son, Jose Enrique, developed and built a prawn farm in 1997 to world-class specifications, completing it the following year with a view to penetrating the export market.

In the late 90s, however, world prawn prices plummeted, bringing with it dozens of like farms all over the country. The Tanjangco’s newly registered Integrated Prawn Farms, Inc. was not spared. Together with damages brought about by an earthquake that badly hit Dagupan in 1999, these put to risk more than P20 million of the IPFI assets.

Father and son were undaunted by the turn of events. To save the business, both decided to shift to fish farming, particularly, of the famous Bonuan ‘bangus’ variety.

The tasty milkfish is known to thrive only in ponds found in Bonuan and adjacent towns of Pangasinan, San Fabian included. “We realized our property was close enough to Bonuan be able to grow its famous milkfish,” says Pons.

In 2000, after restructuring their debt with Bank of Philippine Islands, the Tanjangcos formed Anjo Farms, bolted out of the prawn-raising business, and started seeding their farm with Bonuan fingerlings. In no time, they were harvesting the locally sought-after milkfish.

ADDING VALUE

But competition was keen, and with the continued increase in the cost of feeds, the newly-formed business was put to the test once again. “We decided to add value to the harvested fish, this time by processing it,” Pons said.

The milkfish were deboned and marinated or smoked. In 2001, Anjo Farms was not only gaining headway in the local market, but had also started exporting to the US, Hong Kong, Japan and Hawaii — mostly countries where large communities of expatriate Filipinos lived.

The business thrived, something that Pons largely attributes to the high quality of products that have passed stringent quality standards of countries where the marinated and smoked ‘bangus’ are sold.

“We’re very proud of our processing plant,” Pons says. Aside from its HACCP and Halal certifications, Anjo Farms also secured an EU accreditation, all necessary requirements to gain headway in the export business. “We’re glad we put in a lot of effort in constructing a modern processing plant. The export market is very demanding as far as quality and sanitary conditions,” he adds.

(HACCP or Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points certification was issued locally by the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources, and the Halal stamp was given by the Philippine Office of Muslim Affairs.)

After cleaning and eviscerating the milkfish, deboning follows. Pons is proud of his workforce of about 80 people, many of whom are envied in other countries for the skill in extracting the fish bones with minimal damage to the meat.

The deboned ‘bangus’ that have been seasoned and marinated or smoked are then blast frozen and vacuum packed to seal in all the unique flavors and freshness that Bonuan milkfish is known for.

Anjo Farms is one of the very few companies in the Ilocos region (Region 1) that qualified to receive assistance from the government’s Agricultural Competitiveness Enhancement Fund, a facility aimed at extending financial support to, among others, enable agribusiness entrepreneurs to compete in an extremely competitive and increasingly global agriculture market.

“We prepared a project proposal, did the paperwork, showed the DA people our facilities and existing farm. I think the fact that we were the only exporter in the region that could export our products to Europe clinched the deal,” says Pons.

TV DINNERS

With an ACEF no-interest loan of P12 million approved in 2005, Anjo Farms embarked on further expanding the business, never straying away from its vision to add more value to its produce but finding new forms of packaging milkfish for its consumers.

This time around, Anjo Farms banked on the market to patronize its new line of pre-cooked ready-to-eat ‘bangus’ dishes, some of which are takes of Filipino comfort foods like the ‘adobo,’ native sausage or ‘longganisa’ and ‘sisig.’ Others are inspired by the growing influence of fusion flavors such as teriyaki, barbeque and spring rolls.

Last year, as the peso strengthened vis-à-vis the US dollar, Anjo Farms — as with many of the country’s exporters — decided to cop out of the export market to contain losses largely as a result of the currency fluctuations. “We’re now banking more on the local market to patronize out products,” says Pons.

Two years ago, Jose Enrique died of aneurism. “It was quite unexpected,” Pons said. The son and business partner, who Pons credits as the moving force behind Anjo Farm’s success, left a young wife and small children, and equally important, a father who was carrying on in age.

Albert Stephen or AS, a younger son, is now filling in the void. “I always remind my father that he should retire,” AS says. Pons agrees but in time. Understandably, it is hard to let go — not only because of the memories left by Jose Enrique, but also because the business is on the threshold of a new life cycle. The challenge and excitement will just be too difficult to walk away from.

Useful links:

Anjo Farms Inc. (www.anjofarms.com)
Department of Agriculture (www.da.gov.ph)

ALTERNATIVE LPG BURNER. The JY insulated firebricks stove is made of lightweight but fire-sturdy materials and designed to be heat-efficient. Housewives will also appreciate the relatively clean-burning quality of less expensive charcoal when used in the stove. Photo taken by INQUIRER.net editor CHUPSIE MEDINA

MANILA, Philippines — The bane of high oil prices is Jerry Yu’s boon. Today, in most ongoing trade fairs or expositions, Jerry’s booth would be bustling with activity and business. Interested onlookers invariably would be enticed to purchase what seems to be a sensible solution to spiralling fuel prices.

Jerry is selling charcoal-fed stoves and ovens. Yet, on closer scrutiny, they are not your usual run-of-the-mill burners or kilns. The animated spiel that accompanies Jerry’s product demonstrations reveals more than just a jaded sales pitch. Indeed, it sounds more like an advocacy.

Jerry is a disgruntled LPG user. His dissatisfaction with oil-based fuel, more particularly its continuing price rise, started about three decades ago. In the early 70s, the 16-year old Jerry had decided to help his brother manufacture glazed ceramic and clay products. “It was the in-thing then,” he says.

In the business, LPG had always been considered the ideal fuel for glazing ceramics. The blue-flamed fuel is clean-burning, something that is extremely necessary to bring out that deep, rich smooth luster of color that coats most any decorative clay or ceramic product.

In 1982, Jerry started his own ceramics business. He built his own LPG-fired industrial ovens and used them to bake bricks, pots, planters, tiles and even balusters — any product that the market would buy.

But the early 80s was a time when oil prices were on the rise. With the cost of LPG increasing by 10 percent, Jerry decided to retool his ovens to make them more efficient, and in the process, to stay ahead in the business. “Every time the price of LPG rose, I would introduce changes in the ovens,” he said.

But as the cost of fuel continued its climb, Jerry realized — and with a deep sense of loss — that there was a limit as to how much innovation could be introduced to keep his ovens efficient and competitive.

“It did not help that China was soon producing glazed products that were cheaper than what we could produce,” Jerry says. After some soul-searching, he decided to wind down operations. If it was any consolation, many of his competitors had closed shop even months earlier.

All was not lost, though. Jerry’s dissatisfaction with the high cost of LPG prodded him to take a second and closer look at the poor man’s fuel — charcoal. What knowledge he had imbibed in more than 30 years in the business, specifically in the technology of refractory, became the core of his new stoves and ovens.

With additional researches, Jerry designed and manufactured what are now his unique patented insulating firebricks. They are the most important part of his stoves and ovens, acting as the walls of his specially designed stove tops and kilns to efficiently utilize the heat from its fuel source.

The bricks are porous and light-weight, like most insulators, but retain their strength even at high temperatures. Surprisingly, the outside wall of a JY cooker remains cool even as a fire rages inside. “The design of the firebricks is the product of accumulated knowledge, of 30 years of experience,” Jerry says.

Developing the stove prototypes, though, had been a new adventure for Jerry. He started in earnest two years ago: “They were originally over-engineered,” he says. They were big bulky contraptions that used too much iron and too many bricks, and were not the epitome of fuel-efficiency.

After a year, Jerry felt confident about his much-improved designs. He started giving the newly fabricated models to neighborhood carinderia owners. “I told them to use it and to tell me what they think about it,” he said. The best feedback he continues to cherish is the fact that all stoves he gave away are still very much in use.

“Even at the trade fairs, I listen to comments,” Jerry says. They have become the source of his inspiration to continuously improve his product.

When there were comments that using charcoal was inconvenient, messy and emitted smoke, Jerry searched for the right answers — or solutions. His stove has a tray to efficiently catch ash fall. He showed how his unique bricks don’t accumulate soot. Neither did the outside of the pot get soiled. He suggested using charcoal bits dipped in denatured alcohol to start a fire and to prevent smoke.

Listening and interacting with prospective customers, best of all, had earned him the attention of commercial food establishments. Not only are bakers and pizza parlors lining up with orders for custom-made ovens, even fast food chains and gourmet restaurants were asking for stoves tailor-fit for their own use.

“It’s a happy problem,” Jerry says. Customers, according to the entrepreneur, are willing to wait even a month to get their oven or stoves. Jerry says that re-orders are not uncommon, an indication not only of customer satisfaction, but also of the growing shift away from LPG use.

There have been comments that charcoal is not a better alternative to petroleum because it would unduly deplete our forests, according to Jerry. Even the comparatively lower cost of charcoal would not be sustainable given the tripling of crude oil this last year.

With the same resoluteness he showed when developing his firebrick stoves and ovens, Jerry points to the inevitability of industrial tree farms that would produce renewable fuels. “Petroleum is a finite fuel,” Jerry says, and this would be the single biggest reason for an onrush in the development of alternative fuels.

There will be new forms of cooking fuel, a basic necessity in human living, which will emerge, he says. Even the crude way that charcoal is made will evolve into something more efficient, adds Jerry.

Meanwhile, he will keep improving his stoves in terms of efficiency of fuel use, design and price. For Jerry, this sense of purpose is needed not just to keep in business, but also to help those that are affected by the continuing rise in LPG.

PIZZA PERFECT. Jerry Yu shows the interior of his patented JY insulated firebricks charcoal-fed oven that he originally designed for his wife’s pizza parties, but is now being sought after by commercial pizza establishments and pastry and bread bakeries. Photo taken by INQUIRER.net editor CHUPSIE MEDINA

Jerry Yu can be reached at jyfirebricks@yahoo.com or at telephone number 63.2.9114216 and 63.920.5760256.

CENTER OF ATTRACTION. An attractive showroom of Philippine export products of small and medium business entrepreneurs greets visitors at the agriculture department’s central lobby

QUEZON CITY, Philippines — The country’s agribusiness sector is getting a fresh boost through the latest export endorsement effort of the Department of Agriculture.

Formally opened last November by no less than US Ambassador Kristie Kenney, the refreshingly stylish export promotion showroom conveniently located in the old ground floor foyer of the agriculture department located on the Elliptical Road reflects the new dynamism that is invading the bureaucracy.

To date, 800 Philippine-made products are on display representing some 80 companies that have already started exporting their products or show readiness to sell abroad.

While there are the more established brands of San Miguel Corp., Mama Sita, and Mega sardines, most are new products that are handsomely displayed to catch the attention of prospective traders.

“Our number one public relations effort is still the Secretary,” Minky Alba says. A consultant at the Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp., one of the agriculture department’s government-owned companies, Minky and her team of two are pivotal in the start-up and operations of the showroom.

Whenever agriculture secretary Arthur Yap receives visitors from other countries, a trip to the showroom center is a must. “Surprisingly, it is our locally made wines that have been getting a larger share of the interest,” according to Minky.

Many are extracted from local fruits that add an exotic character to the otherwise inebriating alcoholic beverage. Aside from the comparatively lower unit costs, however, it is the packaging — in unique-shaped bottles and indie art-inspired labelling — that catches attention.

Notwithstanding, there are other products that also draw a fair amount of inquiries, among them are the indigenous herbal teas, shrink-wrapped frozen fish, concoctions of scented virgin coconut oils, local snacks, and bottled sardines.

Minky says that the original intention was simply to have a permanent display area of Philippine-made agricultural products that foreign-based exporters could conveniently view when in town.

“Lately though, we acceded to growing requests to sell the products on display since many of them are not readily available in local commercial outlets,” she says. This has added to the administrative burden of running the showroom, but has not distracted the team from its primary goal.

Admittedly, Minky says, those that are currently showcased represent just the tip of the iceberg. “We only have 220 companies enrolled, and not all of them are active,” she says. There is nurturing needed for many of the companies to keep their products on the shelves.

Many Filipino products with export appeal have their fair share of production problems. One example is Gipah tea which is harvested from the high grounds of the Cordillera mountains, often accessible only by foot. While the product already has successfully broken into the overseas markets, its supply is erratic.

There is also a multitude of Philippine agricultural farm and fisheries produce that is on the priority list of products that needs to be promoted. Some these are bananas, desiccated coconut, pineapples, sugar, coconut oil, tuna, seaweeds and carrageenan, abaca and mangoes.

The showroom is only one of the many initiatives that the agriculture department is doing to promote the export of Philippine agribusiness. There are 10 to 12 major international expositions that aspiring and fledgling exporters can participate in so that they could expand their market reach.

Some of the products on display at the showroom have their success stories based on a simply tenacious attitude of joining trade fairs. Muscovado sugar, for instance, may only be visible in local supermarkets in clear plastic packaging. But for some innovative entrepreneurs, by simply coming up with packages tailor-made for the specific countries has helped them penetrate and gain acceptance in a number of foreign markets.

PROUDLY PHILIPPINE-MADE WINES. Visiting exporters have shown more interest in our wines, an inebriating concoction often of exotic fruit flavors

The government is committed to spend on booths in these exhibits to give Filipino agribusiness entrepreneurs the much-needed channel to promote their products to important foreign buyers, and hopefully expand their markets.

Together with other government agencies, the agriculture department is working on completing a database of Filipinos companies that are already exporting their products and those that are ready to enter the export market.

“The Secretary is also keen on expanding the showroom,” Minky says, to include more Filipino-made products. If they need to open on weekends, the team is ever willing to accommodate requests.

Plans are likewise in the pipeline to bring the showroom concept to the Philippine duty-free shops in airports and to other DA offices. Proudly made Filipino products, after all, genuinely need all the exposure they can get.

SO MUCH TO DO. Agriculture consultant Minky Alba and her team at work at the showroom. Aside from completing a comprehensive data base of Filipino entrepreneurs that are already exporting or ready to export locally-made products, enticing them to utilize government export promotion channels poses a formidable challenge

Some useful links:

http://business.inquirer.net/money/features/view/20080723-150242/Agribusiness-products-find-a-home-showroom
Department of Agriculture (www.da.gov.ph)
Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp.

MANILA, Philippines — When the environment bug bites, the fever could become quite infectious. For Jennifer Munar, a belief in the correctness of organic farming had taken her on a unique adventure that had helped spawn a new business and nurture several others as well.

A chef by profession, Munar’s story started with the attention she gave to food, but with a twist. When her aunt, who was like a mother to her, took ill with cancer, Munar began to wonder about all the pesticides and chemical fertilizers she had seen in farms that produced the vegetables she used in her restaurant, then located on Jupiter St. in Makati City.

“In a field visit before to one of the vegetable farms in Baguio, we were asked to leave the place before they started spraying some chemicals on the produce. I later learned that the practice was to prolong the freshness of the vegetables after they were harvested and transported to Manila for selling.

“If they asked us to leave before the spraying, I surmised that whatever they used could have been harmful to one’s health,” Munar said. Eventually, she would later learn, the soil would become deprived of nutrients, and more chemical-based fertilizers were needed to supply the nutrients that the plants needed.

By chance, she learned about the wonders of nature farming, specifically the use of EM or effective micro-organisms technology through the Okinawa-based EM Research Organization. EM was not simply a product to sell; it was an ideology that believed in the synergistic action of micro-organisms to produce a wide variety of substances called anti-oxidants known to arrest diseases, promote good health and prevent environmental degradation.

After completing a course on EM technology, Munar formed Abianca Trading Corp. to promote and distribute EM and its products. She started visiting farms, persuading owners and farmers to switch from their current agriculture practices of using unsustainable inorganic pesticides and fertilizers to EM.

With EM, though, Munar actually saw land that became healthier, producing a more bountiful harvest even as the volume of EM was being reduced. First formulated by Dr. Teruo Higa of the University of the Ryukyus in Japan in the 80s, EM is now practiced in more than 100 countries, as well as in waste treatment and environmental preservation.

Dr. Higa, according to Munar, had personally visited the Philippines in 1990 to demonstrate to our agriculture department the benefits of using microbial inoculants in agriculture and livestock production. Tests were conducted on chicken and tomatoes, and were found to be safe for use in both plants and animals.

In 1998, EM Research gave EM Research Philippines, Inc. the license to produce microbial inoculants in the country. It was in one of the many seminars and presentations that ERMPI conducted all over the country that Munar had attended and was transformed to being a believer.

In subsequent demonstration and selling travels of Munar, she became friends with Robert Yupangco, who had an idle 10,000-hectare property in Mendez, Cavite. She persuaded him to convert the land into a sort-of demonstration farm where EM could be applied.

Munar convinced Yupangco to attend one of the annual conferences of the Asia Pacific Natural Agriculture Network, an organization based in Bangkok, Thailand that believed in the concepts of Kyusei nature farming and EM technology.

Kyusei was introduced by an erudite Japanese philosopher, Mokichi Okada, as an alternative to intensive chemical farming and its adverse impact on food, the environment and human health. In the mid-80s, Kyusei merged the technology of EM and further strengthened the concept of nature farming.

The technology of EM, which blends common microbes into a solution that could enhance the fermentation processes of composting and remove odor, helped solve the two common problems of waste management and organic or nature farming.

After having seen the Kyusei Nature Farming Center in Sara Buri, located 120 kilometers from Bangkok. Thailand, Yupangco was agreed to use EM in his Mendez property. Both agreed to form Smartcare Corp. to spread EM technology in Luzon. With the growth of its marketing efforts, Munar’s Abianca would instead focus on the Visayas and Mindanao provinces.

Yupangco also agreed to convert the Mendez property into a farm, to be known as Paradizoo, with Munar as a partner. In six months, and with the help of some 20 farm hands, the land was converted into a picturesque paradise of verdant vegetable plots, colorful patches of flowering gardens, and even healthy animal pens.

The farm grows different varieties of lettuce, herbs and spices, fruit-bearing trees, other vegetables, and even produces its own honey. The animals, a passion of Yupangco, according to Munar, include pot belly pigs, goats, deer, rabbits and mini-horses.

The organically-grown vegetables, and even the farm-bred animals, are sold. The converted eco-farm is open to the public, and also has tent-houses for those who want to experience camp life for a night or two.

Yupangco, by the way, also owns Zoobic in Subic, Zambales, a recreation park-cum-zoo that is now already a crowd-drawer in the local tourist destination.

Munar uses the vegetables grown in Paradizoo for her restaurant, Forest Grill, which transferred two years ago from Makati to Timog Ave. in Quezon City. Her eclectic recipes have drawn organic food enthusiasts to have a healthy lunch or dinner at the restaurant.

With the success of Paradizoo, Yupangco and Munar are looking at applying the technology to more farms. And they see no end in sight in their enthusiasm to spread the good word about EM and sustainable farming.

Some useful links:

EM Research Philippines, Inc. (emrpi.com)
Asia Pacific Natural Agriculture Network (www.apnan.org)
Paradizoo (www.paradizoo.com)

MANILA, Philippines — Next to having your own company website, the in-thing now is to be part of an SME business networking site, a take-off from successful social networking sites like Facebook.com, Friendster.com, MySpace.com, Multiply.com, and LiveJournal.com.

This is exactly how SME Solutions, Inc., an IT-enabling company owned by Planters Development Bank, envisioned Bizster.com.ph to be. Still in its beta mode, Bizster has attracted already over 200 members and subscribers after just two months in cyberspace.

This early, Russelle Trinidad, SME Solutions’ sales and marketing head, says that a number of their network participants are already realizing benefits from logging in and using the Bizster site.

Just recently, Edwin Que of Winspire Marketing, a fledging importer and retailer of oral care products, signed up for SME Solutions to design his company’s website after noticing some visible exposure from his Bizster posting.

Like most social networking links, participation in Bizster is for free. SME owners need not spend a single centavo to have their profiles including a gallery of photos uploaded.

Should the Bizster member want its own website, SME Solutions is capable of designing for a modest fee of P8,000 per year hosted in the sme.com.ph site; add P4,000, and SME Solutions would register a unique domain name for the company. “It’s a graduation of sorts,” Trinidad says, when a Bizster decides to expand its web-based marketing and advertising playground.

Bizster now gets 20,000 to 40,000 hits per day, says Trinidad, from about 12,000 unique visitors every month. Still a far cry from those vastly popular social networks, but already encouraging enough for the Planters bank subsidiary formed in 2000 whose mission is to help Filipino entrepreneurs use information and communications technology as a tool in enhancing their business.

The Bizster home page gives the reader a quick view of any new members that have signed up. It is attractive enough to make one linger and explore the many featured products or services. Members are classified in terms of what they offer or promote.

SME.com.ph, the brand name that SME Solutions supports, had been through some teething pains during its first three years, a period where the company was “testing the waters,” said Trinidad. Last year, the company broke even, and things are looking upbeat this year.

“SME.com.ph is now ranked as among the 20 most popular business networking sites in the country. And we aren’t doing too poorly in the world’s ranking,” says Trinidad. They have done so far more than 150 websites for members.

Aside from designing web sites for its members, SME.com.ph also offers resources and tools that would nurture the SME to grow. The accounting and timekeeping software packages developed by the Planter Bank subsidiary allow for affordable financial and operational automation systems for most growing companies.

Trinidad says SME Solutions will soon be offering a payroll software tailor fitted to the unique Philippine labor market and its business operating environment. This would complete the basic suite of SME toolkits that most start-ups need when pushing for higher growth.

On the SME.com.ph site too is a section that matches people with business issues or queries with experts in the fields of human resource, franchising and business management. Advice is free and best of all, sensible.

Truly, the web has never played a bigger role in the development of small and medium enterprises than today.

Here are some useful links:

SME Solutions, Inc. (www.sme.com)
Planters Development Bank (www.plantersbank.com.ph)
www.bizster.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines — They started their partnership on a dare. In the late 90s, they had seen some specialty candles being sold for what they felt could be of better quality and lower cost. Together, Geng Padilla and Tonichi Balaguer learned to cook and mold wax into great looking candles that they started selling in bazaars.

Soon, they were getting orders that were just too much for both of them to handle. Since they didn’t want to delegate the work to just anybody, they decided – and with their modest earnings – to cop out of the business. Just as well, says Geng, since candles were just about to become the gift-of-the-year fad and competition would have become cutthroat.

What Geng and Tonichi earned, they plowed into some new items. They had earlier designed simple shoe bags, and had a few dozens sewn and sold in their stall. It sold so much faster than their candles that a new idea was born.

Their first brand of bags was marketed under the trade name Nomad Adventure Gear, a true fit to their kindred spirits. “We always had a bag of (clothing) change and travel stuff in the car,” Geng says. This way, whenever one of them or both felt the need to travel, they were always prepared.

Having been the best of friends since they met at a rowing club in the 90s, their lust for travel and adventure was a bond that would cement their relationship through the years even as business partners. In 2003, the duo decided to formalize matters and formed Proprius Corp.

They came out with travel clothing and accessories organizers of all shapes and sizes. “The items are patterned after our lifestyle and needs,” which fortunately was also a growing trend among the young and even middle-aged executives who could afford quality products with price tags on the higher end.

Then they came out with Neat Kits, another brand devoted to handbag organizers. The instant appeal of this bag-within-a-bag concept gained patronage from busy women executives who would needed a quick change of bags from day to night or from day to day.

The business partners were having so much fun creating and selling. “We’ve always believed that if it’s enjoyable, you do it. And if it’s no longer enjoyable, you stop it,” says Geng. So on they went.

In 2006, Geng and Tonichi decided it was time to “graduate” from bazaars and find a more permanent home where their customers could easily find them. Nomad’s first store space was in Rockwell, a “small, small” space where they learned their first lessons in mall merchandizing.

When the lease expired and the space they were occupying had to make way for a planned mall renovation, Nomad moved to Glorietta. “It was another tiny space,” says Geng, the area given to them having been the storage room of a sports wear outlet. They spruced up the place and in no time were attracting new as well as old customers.

“We’ve come to realize that we have a lot of loyal buyers,” notes Geng. They continue to patronize Nomad in spite the growing proliferation of copycats. “We’re flattered that we’re being copied, and even if they’re being sold at half the price,” she says, “but we don’t intend to cut our prices.”

Loyal customers don’t seem to mind the price difference, and instead place value on the quality of craftsmanship and choice of materials that go into the merchandise. Both Geng and Tonichi, on the other hand, wouldn’t dream of substituting on quality.

“We exert a lot of effort in looking for quality materials that we use in making the bags,” Geng says. This is difficult for a small company like Propius that needs to sometimes physically elbow other buyers to stake a roll of fabric, for example, when new shipments arrive. “It’s a good thing we’re both sturdy in build,” she describes herself and Tonichi, with humor.

At this point, the yearning to grow the business continues to be foremost in the partners’ mind. “We’re looking for another outlet, perhaps in the south. We plan to branch out with more brands.” Are they still enjoying what their doing? You bet.