Features
Sustaining a legacy
A handicraft business built on a long-time activity of a founder’s parents shows durability over the years by focusing on the export market
By Icy Luzano
In January 1973, Sheldon and Mediatrix Villanueva, then newly married, went into the handicraft business by putting up a company called Shelmed Cottage Treasures in Daraga, Albay. The name they gave their company was, of course, an acronym that fuses the first syllables of their first names.
Because her parents are pioneers in abaca handicraft in Albay, it was but natural for Mediatrix to go into the handicraft business herself. Her family had been engaged in the business way back to 1937 and has been exporting abaca products since 1950.
Thus, on her initiative, Mediatrix and Sheldon decided to carry on with her family legacy by manufacturing all-hand-made, all-natural rugs and placement mats made of abaca fiber. They started with three workers and P3,000 in initial capital. Unlike others in the industry, however, they decided to exclusively focus on the export market.
The Villanueva couple—perhaps two of the youngest Filipino exporters at the time—took a series of trips abroad to look for markets for their abaca products. They succeeded in making export arrangements with several foreign buyers and, in just a few months, they were able to get back their initial investment.
Today, aside from specialty abaca products, Shelmed now also makes handicraft that incorporates raffia and other local fibers. Its product lines have greatly expanded from rugs and mats to storage baskets, table accessories, bags, packaging boxes, cushions, pillows, and various novelty items.
Meshelle Villanueva, the eldest of the couple’s seven children, is now Shelmed’s director for marketing, handling the bulk of the management work for the company. None of her siblings has gone into the business like her, but all of them have been helping out in mapping production plans and in providing logistics.
What the Villanueva family calls their “cottage industry” has a work force of 112 regular employees and provides livelihood to some 2,000 families in Albay. All coming from the grassroots level, Shelmed’s workers are mostly skilled artisans who do the harvesting, sorting, and weaving of the abaca fibers into various handicrafts. From harvest up to the packaging of the finished product, the production of a single rug can take up to two months—even longer during the rainy season. As Mediatrix says, laughing, “Mother nature is still the most difficult mother to deal with.”
Shelmed gets its fibers mostly from the Bicol region, which lies in the country’s typhoon belt, but Meshelle says that after three decades in the business, the company has already mastered the ropes of doing it regardless of the vagaries of the weather and the ordering calendar of the importing countries. “Production and shipment have to fit a certain window, so we always make sure that we get our products in time for events that are important to our foreign buyers,” she says.
Shelmed does not distribute its products locally. Its entire production is exported to Europe, the United States, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and several other countries.
CONTACT DETAILS
SHELMED COTTAGE TREASURES
Sales Office: 843 Balagtas St.,
Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City
Telephones: (02) 726-0897; (02) 726-4225; (02) 727-2477; 725-1974
E-mail: info@shelmed.com
Factory: Montana Building,
F. Lotivo St., Bagumbayan,
Daraga, Albay
Telephones: (052) 483-3505; (052) 483-3731
E-mail: daraga@shelmed.com
Because her parents are pioneers in abaca handicraft in Albay, it was but natural for Mediatrix to go into the handicraft business herself. Her family had been engaged in the business way back to 1937 and has been exporting abaca products since 1950.
Thus, on her initiative, Mediatrix and Sheldon decided to carry on with her family legacy by manufacturing all-hand-made, all-natural rugs and placement mats made of abaca fiber. They started with three workers and P3,000 in initial capital. Unlike others in the industry, however, they decided to exclusively focus on the export market.
The Villanueva couple—perhaps two of the youngest Filipino exporters at the time—took a series of trips abroad to look for markets for their abaca products. They succeeded in making export arrangements with several foreign buyers and, in just a few months, they were able to get back their initial investment.
Today, aside from specialty abaca products, Shelmed now also makes handicraft that incorporates raffia and other local fibers. Its product lines have greatly expanded from rugs and mats to storage baskets, table accessories, bags, packaging boxes, cushions, pillows, and various novelty items.
Meshelle Villanueva, the eldest of the couple’s seven children, is now Shelmed’s director for marketing, handling the bulk of the management work for the company. None of her siblings has gone into the business like her, but all of them have been helping out in mapping production plans and in providing logistics.
What the Villanueva family calls their “cottage industry” has a work force of 112 regular employees and provides livelihood to some 2,000 families in Albay. All coming from the grassroots level, Shelmed’s workers are mostly skilled artisans who do the harvesting, sorting, and weaving of the abaca fibers into various handicrafts. From harvest up to the packaging of the finished product, the production of a single rug can take up to two months—even longer during the rainy season. As Mediatrix says, laughing, “Mother nature is still the most difficult mother to deal with.”
Shelmed gets its fibers mostly from the Bicol region, which lies in the country’s typhoon belt, but Meshelle says that after three decades in the business, the company has already mastered the ropes of doing it regardless of the vagaries of the weather and the ordering calendar of the importing countries. “Production and shipment have to fit a certain window, so we always make sure that we get our products in time for events that are important to our foreign buyers,” she says.
Shelmed does not distribute its products locally. Its entire production is exported to Europe, the United States, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and several other countries.
CONTACT DETAILS
SHELMED COTTAGE TREASURES
Sales Office: 843 Balagtas St.,
Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City
Telephones: (02) 726-0897; (02) 726-4225; (02) 727-2477; 725-1974
E-mail: info@shelmed.com
Factory: Montana Building,
F. Lotivo St., Bagumbayan,
Daraga, Albay
Telephones: (052) 483-3505; (052) 483-3731
E-mail: daraga@shelmed.com
