BIG DREAMS IN SMALL PACKAGES

Big dreams in small packages
By Cris Evert Lato
Cebu Daily News First Posted 12:01:00 07/03/2008 Filed Under: Entrepreneurship

Rey E. Calooy was leading a humdrum life in a pharmaceutical company for five years, having worked his way up the ranks from mere salesman to division sales manager, when one day a seemingly random thought crossed his budding entrepreneurial mind.

“I was sitting down in my office and thought, 'Dili naman gyud ko matag-iya aning kompaniyaha (I could never be the owner of this company) so why not put up my own business?” said Rey, now general manager of RNC Marketing Philippines.

RNC is engaged in the business of toll packing coffee, non-dairy cream and refined and brown sugar which it distributes to hotels, coffee shops and restaurants.

Rewind to 1996 and Calooy's decision to resign met with stiff resistance from his wife, Necy who just had their first baby.

That year, with less than P20,000 in his account obtained from payroll savings, Rey started selling rugs to different companies in Cebu.

“Rugs in Cebu were sold at P1. I had a supplier from Toledo, a cooperative where I get rugs at 3 for P1. I sell the rugs at 50 centavos here in Cebu,” he recalled. From there, the business evolved.

“When people asked me what's my business I said 'You name it, I'll find it.' From rugs, I sold cotton buds, lacquer thinner and more to friends, companies, many of whom I met in my previous job,” Calooy recounted to .

About the same year that Bo's Coffee of Steve Benitez opened shop in Ayala Center Cebu, Rey also started repacking sugar and coffee.

“Dili pa to uso ang coffee shops. (Coffee shops were not popular that time.) I approached owners who later made me their supplier,” he said.

To date, RNC supplies sugar and creamer to Coffee Dream, Bo's Coffee, Starbucks and Hilton Cebu Resort and Spa. It has total assets of less than P3 million.

Later on, he formed two more companies—MY Partners International Trading Inc. which is into trading and distribution and Rhea Naomi Food Products, which manufactures ginger tea, squash pancit canton and instant sikwate(hot chocolate).

Rey said he only applied one formula to gain good returns from his business—income minus savings equals expenses.

He said he set aside 20 percent of his earnings to savings.

He also applies the same practice to his children whom he gave individual piggy banks.

“In my readings, I learned that utang (debts) are presumptions of the future while savings are preparations for the future,” Rey said.

No red carpet

Rey shared that he did not experience a red carpet premiere when he started his journey down the road to entrepreneurship.

Like any probinsyano, he came to Cebu City in 1986 to study, find a job and eventually help improve his family's socio-economic welfare.

At age 17, Rey worked as a store helper at the Carbon Market in the morning and attended classes as an Accountancy student at the Cebu Central College now University of Cebu.

Things became tough for Rey in his third year so he approached lawyer Augusto Go, the school owner, and asked if he could be the Chinese businessman's scholar. Go agreed after asking a few questions.

Later Go became one of the couple’s godfathers during their wedding.

A stint as student leader in college led to a job as radio reporter for station DYLA following graduation.

“(Presidential Management Staff Head) Cerge Remonde was (then) my boss and Leo Lastimosa my news director. It was from there I learned the rigors of going out in field and I loved the job,” Calooy said.

However a career in broadcasting was cut short with a company layoff in 1991.

Rey then applied for a sales position in a pharmaceutical company, a job which enabled him to travel to different places and meet people.

Lessons from the Chinese

As a boy who plowed fields in Libangon, Southern Leyte the values of frugality and a prayer-led life were deeply ingrained in him by family.

He also considers Chinese businessmen like Go as efficient role models who made him realize that “we can be successful in the Philippines.”

Rey said the Chinese were overseas workers who do not know how to speak both English and the native language, but still managed to get rich.

“It all boils down to culture and values. The Chinese pay their debts and have very good credit line. If they can't pay, they talk to creditors,” he said.

And like Go, who helped him with his education, Rey is also sending his own set of scholars to school hoping to replicate his success story to them.

“As an entrepreneur, you should surround yourself with entrepreneurs, read business stories and talk to business people.”

All these, Rey said, keeps his entrepreneurial spirit alive.

(The old home image where Rey Calooy used to live from Childhood days until he finished college education.)