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Cebu City, Philippines - More than a good business sense, strong family ties has made Cebu-based San Vic-Holdings Corp. a successful corporation engaged in construction and food production and distribution.
“My husband (Rafaelito) and I were both born from poor families. We wanted to give work to our relatives so we started with a trading business in 1987. It was established to have a means of livelihood,” said Fe Mantuhac-Barino, finance officer and corporate secretary.
The business, San-Vic Traders Inc., was named after Barangay (village) San Vicente in Liloan town because it was where the couple started.
The main office, however, is located in Barangay Yati, also in Liloan.
Fe said her siblings helped manage the company because her husband Lito only has one sibling.
They sold almost anything from broomsticks to paints.
While in the trading business, Fe said Lito met friends who introduced him to a Korean contractor who won in the bidding for the Cebu North Road project that expands from the town of Consolacion to Danao City in northern Cebu.
“We don't have any background in construction because my husband is a business administration graduate and I am an accountant by profession,” Fe said.
“We don't have any engineers. But they offered us to be sub-contractors of the project,” she said.
Although hesitant, the couple decided to learn the rigors of the construction business, specifically in road asphalting after the Koreans assured that they would undergo training on how to go about construction work.
In 1990, they established Duros Development Corp., their construction arm. The trading business, however, continued.
Duros was taken from the word “dura,” which means strong and durable, Fe said.
“We learned a lot from the foreign consultants and experts… how to do environment-friendly construction work. We learned world-class construction work on our first project,” she said.
The road project was completed in 1998.
Although it was a success, Fe said they had encountered various challenges especially in dealing with the Korean contractors.
“Grabe ang pressure ato. We have to endure the attitude of the Koreans nga syagitan ka (they shout at you). It was our first and biggest project and it costs us a lot. We call it a very expensive tuition for us to learn.”
After gaining the reputation of being part of a world-class project, Duros received offers for other road asphalting projects.
“We did the Mandaue Reclamation project and until now, the province of Cebu is a loyal client. Our trade mark is really road asphalting. The technology that we have is based on what the Korean has taught us and of course, with some upgrades,” Fe said.
Aside from San-Vic Traders and Duros, Fe said they put up other firms that were engaged in the manufacture of the food business as well as in some needs of a construction business.
San-Vic Holdings Corp. was incorporated in 1995 serving as the “umbrella” holdings group for San-Vic Traders, Duros, San-Vic Food Chain Corp., San-Vic Allied Foods, San-Vic Agrobuilders, Cebu Ecothermal Horizon and Gold East Construction, among others.
Fe said the values of strong family ties, credibility and honesty have made their companies survive the 1986 EDSA Revolution and 1997 Asian Financial Crisis that pushed other firms to close down.
At present, Fe said they are fine tuning their systems to get an ISO-accreditation. ISO or International Standards Organization accredits a company for its world-class means of doing business.
Asked if personal conflicts have not gotten in the way of doing business, Fe said: “There are instances but we are quick to resolve them. We always agree not to quarrel over money.”
The entire corporation has around 300 employees.
To pay forward to the community for the 21 years of successful business operations, Fe said they established the school KFI Life Education Center.
It is being run by Kaalam Foundation Inc. and Love of God Community, two communities which Lito and Fe are active officers.
Because of these accomplishments and selfless contributions to the community, Lito was named one of the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalists in 2006.
Fe said strong family ties played a key role in their success.
“If a family can get together during crisis, when a member of the family dies for example, why not bond to make a business grow. This is one of the principles we believe in,” Fe said.
Not bad for a family who started with P1,000 as personal contributions to put up what is now one of the most successful corporations based in Cebu.
