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CEBU CITY, Philippines - Samson Tiu never imagined he would last in the garments business when he started helping out at his aunt's school supplies shop in Cebu City. He sold T-shirts from his aunt's shop as a sideline while he was in college in the late 1980s.
But after more than a decade in the garments industry, Tiu's company, Stitches and Wear, made it through the financial crisis in 1997. Today, it has made a name among his service sector clients in Cebu.
His secret in thriving in the industry is innovation to satisfy his clients.
Tiu recalled how he started in the garments business.
“After I graduated in 1989, I worked for a consultancy firm of the Sorianos. San Miguel Corp. called us up for a research assignment, for a company in Manila which handles consultancy and research for the United Nations Development Program,” he said. “I worked for them only for a year. Six months ra ta to, my assignment was in Mindanao, Davao to South Cotabato.”
Then I worked at my elder brother's tuna canning business in Iloilo for four months.
In 1991, Tiu returned in Cebu and started working in his father's wholesale and retail business, Roma Enterprises. He then bought sewing machines and started wholesale selling of T-shirts.
A year later, he bought an embroidery machinery and went into embroidery business as well.
He also set up a firm called the Cebu Golden Stitch.
Since 1993, he bought more machineries for Cebu Golden Stitch and Roma Enterprises.
In 1997, Tiu registered the Cebu Golden Stitch under his name and thus was born Stitches and Wear.
1997 was also the year when the Asian Financial Crisis hit. But Stitches and Wear survived the crisis by innovating and targeting corporations by selling corporate giveaways and promotional items like towels, mugs, umbrellas, caps, and bags where they could place the logo of the company.
“At that time, we just had to be practical. (We initiated) cost cutting measures and initiated efficiency or productivity systems. The primary goal was to make our customers happy, because if our customers would be happy, they would remain loyal,” he said.
Today, Stitches and Wear continues to thrive by being prudent in the company's expenses and keeping an eye on the market and on new trends.
“The key to continuous improvement is to innovate all the time and make your customers satisfied,” Tiu said.
The company now has 30 workers, and unless they're working on big orders, work is done purely in-house, from manufacturing to embroidery. The firm's market consists mainly of institutions like schools, government agencies and private companies.
Tiu considered the company's flexibility with regards to our clients' orders as one of the biggest assets of the company.
“We always put ourselves in the shoes of the customer. For example, naa siyay product nga ganahan pero di makaya sa budget, we suggest other products. More personal ang approach sa customer relationship,” he said.
The awards received by the company such as the Most Outstanding T-shirt Manufacturer in Metro Cebu of the 2007 National Marketing Excellence Awards and Best Shirt Manufacturer in the 2008 National Product Quality Excellence Awards proved the firm's products are of top quality.
Tiu however said he sees Cebu as a growing economy with its market getting to be medium-to high-end because of the income earning potential of Cebu workers.
He said this is good for the company because their strengths lie more in the service industries which are usually made up of knowledge and skill-based workers.
He cited the business process outsourcing employees, who have money to spend, and is one of the markets of the company.
