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At an early age, Justin Uy ventured into the business world primarily to help his father send his 11 siblings to school.
It was not a walk in the park for Uy in putting up his businesses. Many ventures failed until in 1980 he found the right one for him ? processing dried mangos.
?I did venture into shellcraft and fashion jewelry and even tried mushroom culture but I have to close them because I wasn't able to make it big,? Uy said.
Despite his failures, he never stopped believing in himself and continued looking for other viable business concepts, until at the age of 19, he realized the abundant supply of fresh mango fruits in Cebu, which were sold at cheap prices then.
Mangoes
?There was so much supply of mangoes back then but they're not as valued before that season farmers don't harvest the fruits. They just leave them to rot in the ground because it was not an expensive crop at that time,? he said.
He started his small dried mangoes business at his home in Mabolo with less than 10 employees.
He sold his dried mangoes by approaching buyers who would sell the dried mangoes.
But at that time, dried mangoes had started to popular in the local market and he faced stiff competition from other local businessmen who had ventured into the business.
And so, Uy decided to explore the possibility of selling his dried mangoes abroad.
?Processed mangoes are very saleable products abroad.? said Uy.
First market
Hong Kong was his first international market, supplying processed mangoes such as mango nectar and dried mangoes. After several years, the single-owned company became a corporation, which is owned by the Uy family. Profood International Corp. was formally founded in 1986.
The business continued to grow with product lines increasing from processed mangoes to processed tropical fruits like calamansi and pineapple. At present, the company is processing at least 11 tropical fruits with over 50 products.
From Hong Kong, Profood International Corp. became widely known across 40 countries worldwide with more than 50 percent share of the export market for dried mangoes in the world.
Profood is also the biggest exporter of dried mangoes in Japan with an 80 percent share of the market.
?What we always wanted before was to become one of the biggest and most reputable company because buyers in the export industry always want the best. And we also provide that (quality products) at reasonable prices. We are also very particular with our delivery. We always see to it that we are on time, because buyers are very strict when it comes to delivery,? Uy said.
Marketing
Through aggressive marketing, constant development of new products and working together with their customers to develop ways to improve their products, Profood was able to withstand difficult times.
?We struggled a lot in the past especially during the time of President (Ferdinand) Marcos when we were not financially steady yet and the banks then won't give out loans. We however managed to survive those times,? Uy said.
They give out samples to potential buyers and actively join food shows and expos as part of their robust marketing to improve visibility of their products in any country.
From food processing, they eventually diversified and added two more divisions, which included the industrial division where ingredients used by big food companies like Nestle for their Cerelac products are produced.
?We produce the main ingredient which is banana and then sell it to Nestle in Malaysia for their Cerelac product lines.?
They also added the toll packing division where they do packaging for big companies like Coca Cola, Sunkist and Del Monte.
New plant
Profood processing plant is now located at Highway, barangay Maguikay, Mandaue City. The processing plant not occupies a two hectare lot which houses six of the firm's factories for repacking and processing, which is a far cry from the company's first processing plant which is only about few hundred meters in Uy's Mabolo home.
Aside from the Mandaue plant, Profood has also processing plants in Davao and Manila and has created employment for over a thousand Filipinos.
Uy's small business venture has since grown into a multi-million company with strong local and international market influence.
Uy said he is proud that Profoods is one the few Filipino companies that made it big by producing export quality food products.
?Our experience just proves that Filipinos can do it, we don't need to be a multinational company to compete abroad,? he said.
Dream
It all started with a young man's dream to help his father support his 11 kids' education and other needs. Uy, a chemical engineering graduate of the University of San Carlos, who was once a dried mango vendor, now sits as the president of perhaps one of Asia's biggest export company.
Profood's success did not go unnoticed. The Cebu provincial government recognized Justin Uy as one of the Garbo sa Sugbo awardees this year. The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry also chose Uy as its Entrepreneur of the Year in 2009.
