Bobson Jeans founder Victor Tan's success is more than pesos and centavos

By Walter Ang
Dec 2007-Feb 2008 issue
Asian Dragon Magazine

Twenty years have passed since Bobson Jeans was introduced to the Philippine market. What began as a small venture in Divisoria has blossomed into a nationwide organization employing 500-plus people with a network of over 130 concessions outlets and 25 freestanding boutiques nationwide.

If you ask the man who started it all if he's reached the peak of his success, he promptly answers, "No." Victor Tan feels strongly that there is more to be done despite his having achieved more than what his contemporaries have been able to.

The eldest of six siblings, Victor started out as a salesman in bustling downtown Manila (comprised of the Chinatown commercial district Binondo, Sta Cruz, San Fernando and Tondo) while attending night classes in college. He speaks of an irrepressible spirit amidst his humble upbringing that led him to take on any job that came his way, whether it be tutoring grade school students or working in furniture and hardware businesses.

A passion for fashion led him to craft the dream he would build on. "I have always had a strong curiosity in what was going on around me. I tend to notice the tiniest details about clothes. I often comment on people's sense of style. I always make it a point to wear shirts/pants that is always in fashion."

He had been printing t-shirts for sale as Christmas giveaways for various companies and eventually worked for a garment manufacturing company, it was these entrepreneurial elements that finally came together when he wanted to create a "homegrown clothing brand that would prove itself through craftsmanship."

He then shares the birthing pains that came with making that dream a reality. "After spending a lot of time and money introducing Bobson to the market, getting rejected was becoming the norm. We got our first big break when the big department store chains in Manila allowed us to showcase our products," he says.

That began the continuous efforts of Victor to build on his brand. Bobson was only carrying its jeans line at that time, now it features an entire line of garments and accessories. His hard work has not gone unnoticed. For the years 2003 to 2005, the Consumer Union of the Philippines awarded Bobson as "Most Outstanding Manufacturer of Local Jeans Wear," while Parangal ng Bayan Foundation named it as "Best Jeans Manufacturer."

"Consumer satisfaction in our products and services has been the basic reason behind our steady growth these years," he says. "As a matter of business philosophy, we invest time, effort, and expense in building up our capability to design, create, and produce products that meet the needs and expectations of our target market." Given his steady hand in leading the company, it's no wonder that Victor was selected as one of the Top Ten Small-to-medium Entrepreneurs for 2005.

Central to all his achievements, Victor plays by a set of values: hard work, integrity and respect for others. Family also plays an important role in keeping him on track. A father of four children with wife Rosemarie, Victor says that his constant inspiration is the hard work and perseverance that his late father exhibited. "He was never daunted by poverty in his devotion to the family's welfare."

In addition, Victor is guided by Buddhist principles that advise, "all entrepreneurs should seek more than just business profits or materialistic wealth, but must seek inner peace, contentment and maintain lifelong integrity as well." He knows whereof he speaks since he is also currently the Director of the Philippine Buddha Light International Association.

"I do not measure success in terms of pesos and centavos only. Success to me becomes complete if along with my company's growth, it would have contributed to the betterment of society and our employees," he says. 

Patty Limpe and her Antonio Pueo chocolate factory

Patty and her chocolate factory 
By Walter Ang
Dec 2007-Feb 2008 issue
Asian Dragon Magazine

The Asian Dragon team is ushered into a high-ceilinged office with tables and equipment crammed into available space. There's nothing fancy about the wide hall except that it has a distinct aroma wafting through the door.

An invigorating scent cuts the air as Patricia Limpe offers us steaming hot chocolate in dainty porcelain cups. She smiles and announces, "They call me the chocolate lady." Patty, as she prefers to be called, is simply stating a fact. After all, she is the only woman who has stuck her nose into the male-dominated chocolate manufacturing industry.

But what a nose it is. As the manager of one of oldest chocolate factories in the Philippines ("I've been told that we're actually the oldest chocolate factory in Southeast Asia," she shares.), she's been able to sniff out a winning recipe to keep it alive and well.

Then 
"The chocolates we make now are produced in exactly the same way they were made back then. We are faithful to the original recipe so we can preserve its distinct taste and its unique character," Patty says proudly. "We want to maintain the authenticity of our chocolates. In fact, we still use the original machines of the factory. No one makes those kinds of machines anymore."

Antonio Pueo Incorporada was founded in 1939 by Spanish immigrant Jose Maria Pueo. The company is named for his godfather, a Spanish friar, from whom he learned the knowledge of chocolate making. In the 80s, Pueo sold the factory to Patty's father, Julius, after losing a big account supplying to a fastfood chain.

"My father has a passion for acquiring food companies with a history. Pueo chose my father among other potential buyers because our family wasn't in it just for the money. Our family really cares about the process and the final product," she says.

Now
With a family business that has diverse interests across several food manufacturing companies, Patty is the designated member who "sets up new projects." However, despite managing other companies, most of her time is dedicated to the chocolate factory. It's a one-woman show where she handles almost every aspect of the process, from purchasing the raw ingredients to marketing the final products. "I'm even the one who designs the packaging!" she laughs.

The core of the business is still the tableas, round discs of chocolate goodness sold in rolls that come in pure form or mixed with milk. "Everyone wants the taste of chocolates but no one wants to bother with preparation anymore. I try to make it as easy for them as possible," she explains.

With this as the jumping off point, this self-confessed "food scientist" has created a whole line of new products ranging from instant chocolate drink mixes to chocolate cookie mixes. Popular are her oatmeal and champorado mixes as well as her churros con chocolate mixes. "These are the same stuff that people having been eating or drinking, but now it's easier to make." Her efforts are well appreciated, so much so that her churros mix has won an award for "Classic Products Made Convenient."

She is proud of the fact that they don't scrimp on quality when it comes to ingredients. "We use only the best fermented cacao beans. We don't use sun-dried beans because it lacks flavor and aroma. When it comes to chocolates, the higher cocoa butter content, the better its taste," she points out. "Antonio Pueo is made with all 100% cocoa butter still intact."

Legacy
"All the ingredients are locally sourced." Patty beams. "We're in the chocolate and coffee belt, the area twenty degrees above and below the equator. Countries that are in the belt have the humidity, sun, and shade to grow cacao beans." The results are definitely world-class since Pueoe chocolates are currently exported to countries such as the USA, Canada, Australia, and China.

It really is Patty's advocacy to bring chocolate to more and more kitchens and dining rooms. Starting them young, she has been teaching grade school children how to mix and bake using Pueo cookie mixes for years now. "It not only tastes good, it's good for you, too," she says. For proof of the health benefits of chocolate, Patty asks us to look no farther than the founder of the factory himself. "Jose Maria Pueo drank chocolate everyday of his life and passed away only last year. He was 97 years old."

As the sole custodian of his legacy, a healthy respect for tradition has guided Patty in maintaining the longevity of the Pueo name into our modern times. Patty brings out the original metal printing plates of the old labels used for packaging and proceeds to show us the delicate evolution of small adjustments and changes of the labels into their present designs. "We had to do a gradual process. We couldn't just change the labels right away since people are very familiar with the brand name."

It is this same careful thought and meticulous care that she imbues into the birthing of new products carrying the Pueo name. "I don't develop ideas only for them to become fads," she says. Now, her own vision comes to light as she proclaims, "I want to be like Kellogs, whose cereals have been around for hundreds of years. I create products that will last."

REVIEW: Atlantis Productions' 'Dogeaters' presents a multi-layered Philippines

A Multi-Layered Philippines 
By Walter Ang
November 20, 2007
Clickthecity.com (http://guides.clickthecity.com/arts/?p=2408)

Dogeaters, now playing at the Carlos Romulo Auditorium at RCBC Plaza though the staging of Atlantis Productions, begins with the ensemble cast announcing snippets of news reports, as if an invisible hand was tuning through all the stations of a radio, cleverly bringing the audience into the milieu of the this multi-layered play based on Jessica Hagedorn's novel of the same title.

The sentences are clipped and the sound weaves in and out, leaving the audience with only enough bits and pieces to make out that the setting is the beginning of the end of the Marcos regime.

A plethora of characters and their stories are introduced in the first act and the audience must stay attentive to grasp everything that is going on amidst the textured set designed by Kalila Aguilos. Smack in the middle of the galvanized iron sheets and barbed wire is a massive portrait of the former First Lady Imelda Marcos, whose off-stage ministrations, such as the construction of a film center and organizing a film festival, are a constant onstage presence that inexorably help bring the plot threads together.

Mirroring how many of the characters seem to be on the periphery of bigger events around them, however close to falling in to or quietly orchestrating the fray they are, the audience is made to feel like expectant voyeurs with all of the scenes being annotated by two broadcaster-announcer personalities Nestor Norales (a dapper Leo Rialp) and Barbara Villanueva (played with gusto by Ana Abad-Santos).

Much like the long running radio soap opera hosted by these announcers, the play unfolds in snatches of scenes where tawdry gossip and dangerous secrets are revealed.

The cast is populated by a wonderful mix of actors popular in TV and movies such as Michael de Mesa, Gina Alejar and Joel Torre as well as theater stalwarts like Rialp, Abad-Santos and Richard Cunanan with up-and-coming Philippine High School for the Arts alumnus Nicco Manalo in a convincing turn as a drugged-out Amerasian hustler.

Directed by Bobby Garcia, all sixteen actors take on double or triple roles.

Not to be missed is the fun and fabulous Diana Ross impersonation by Jon Santos, the scene-stealing thunder of Rez Cortez and the subtle but sure changes that Abad-Santos imbues her character as the play progresses.

The multitude of subplots soon builds up to the assassination of Benigno Aquino-inspired Senator Domingo Avila (Joel Torre), revealing two characters, his beauty pageant winner-turned-rebel daughter Daisy (Jenny Jamora) and witness-to-the-assassination Joey Sands (Nicco Manalo), to stand out and drive home the near epic story in a poignant, though somewhat curtailed, encounter.

For those of in the audience who lived through or grew up in the 70s and 80s, the stories in Dogeaters are at once familiar yet blurred, distinct yet fractured. Watching the play becomes an exercise in gaining perspective on the events that inspired the veiled retellings onstage as filtered by time and through the playwright's distance from where they actually happened.

Though it seems some scenes would have worked better if the dialogue were in Tagalog instead of English, it only goes to build on the fact that Dogeaters is decidedly a vision of the Philippines in Hagedorn's voice.

As a counterpoint to the play's insane, colorful array of drugs, guns, power, sex, politics, religion and everything in between, Hagedorn's alter-ego Rio Gonzaga (Teresa Herrera) provides the concluding commentary. The balikbayan, who returns after more than a decade of being away and is lost in the middle of it all, points out that "everything is different but nothing has changed."