Grow Your Business

Virginia Chua’s pastries, made fresh at her bakeshop in Bacolod, were reaching many parts of the globe even though she was not exporting them. The balikbayans who had come to love her sweet concoctions served as her unpaid couriers. “Kung minsan may dumadating na lang sa amin, dala lang ang label at hinahanap talaga kami,” she says.

Discovering that her products were going overseas forced her to take a long, hard look at her packaging. Chua knew that she already had her recipes down pat; she just wanted her pastries to stand out if these were indeed being arrayed against a sea of foreign products. “Our customers are mostly balikbayans who bring our products abroad. Dapat i-improve natin ang packaging para maganda naman ang produkto natin sa labas.”

When she started her home-based business in 1974, Chua’s famous pastillas de manga (mango tarts) were wrapped only in transparent plastic, which easily crushed while in transit. To solve this, she sealed each piece in plastic cellophane to keep out the moisture, and then arranged each one in a box. Not only did her pastries look more presentable, but their shelf life lengthened by a month – from two months to three months.

Her experience with the balikbayans had encouraged Chua to go formally into export. She approached the Department of Science and Technology’s Packaging Research and Development Center (PRDC) and the Department of Trade and Industry’s Product Development and Design Center of the Philippines (PDDCP) for help in improving her products.

The DOST is now guiding Chua to lengthen her products’ shelf life to six months with the use of new packaging materials. PDDCP is helping her make her products visually appealing at all points of sale and to develop a strong logo for her brand.

Chua was introduced to the need for product makeovers while she attended the annual national trade fair in Manila, and the regional trade fairs of the Association of Negros Producers, during which the DTI would require small and medium entrepreneurs to innovate their packaging. She was totally sold on the idea, although she was equally aware that a good packaging was not everything there was to having a saleable product. “Siyempre kung maganda ang packaging, dapat masarap din talaga ang produkto mo. Kahit na mahal na yung ingredients, hindi namin ina-adjust yung mga recipes namin. And I personally inspect my products every day.”

Aside from pastillas de manga, her old-time homegrown favorites include tarts made of caramel, macapuno, cheese, and langka; pineapple empanaditas; galletas; barquiron; and napoleones. She develops new products all the time, including a line with kamias or ginger lily as the main ingredient. “Dati ginagamit lang ang kamias pangpaasim, ngayon puwede na siyang dessert,” Chua says. From her experiment with ginger lily came the Camias Twirl, which won the Bulawan awards for innovative products from the Association of Negros Producers. She also created a healthy line for the health-conscious, including whole-wheat bars made from whole-wheat flour and kamias prunes.

Despite her efforts to improve her packaging, Chua still attributes her success to consistently offering quality products and by showing genuine concern for her customers. “Yung mga customers ko ngayon, mga anak at apo na ng mga customers ko dati.” Competitors do not faze Chua at all because she knows her product and her market very well. “You have your own recipe even if you produce the same things. You have your own customers and you should take care of them.” That’s why even if her products were going places, she would always make sure that they would look and taste as good as when they left her bakery in Bacolod.

Packing them in

If you want to give your logo and packaging a makeover, it may be worth giving these government agencies a visit:

• The Product Development and Design Center of the Philippines (PDDCP) charges a minimum of P2,500 for three design studies for labels. Requests for PDDCP services may be coursed through the Product Clinic at telephone numbers (02) 832-1112 to 19, (02) 833-7881, and (02) 832-3649. They can also be reached via e-mail at pddcp@mozcom.com and pddcp@dti.gov.ph.

• The Packaging Research and Development Center (PRDC) offers a variety of technical services that include package development (fee is P15,155); shelf-life testing of perishable items (P7,596); nutrition facts (P1,900); and ingredient analysis (P5,000 to 25,000). Priority is given to small and medium enterprises that join trade fairs and are endorsed by the trade department’s local offices. For details, call (02) 837-7530 and (02) 837-2071 local 2271.

From pastime to full time

Virginia Chua started baking to satisfy her father’s sweet tooth. This Banking and Finance graduate eventually went into the business in 1974 after her culinary concoctions spread beyond kith and kin. Orders for her birthday and wedding cakes and pastries just poured in from people who had sampled her products. At 30, Chua started her business at their rented house, using her P3,000 in savings and the oven her husband gave her as a gift.

In 2002, her home-based business earned P5 million. With that plus a bank loan, she bought the lot on which stood her rented house and had her house torn down to have a building constructed in its place. The building housed her production center and their 22 employees. The ground floor was turned into a pasalubong center.

The reach of Virgie’s Homemade Products has since gone beyond Bacolod. Chua now sells at Shopwise, Rustan’s Supermarket, Pioneer Supermarket, Balikbayan Handicraft, Bacolod Chicken Inasal, and Michelle’s Homemade Putong Ube, her distribution arm in Metro Manila. Not too long from now, her products will be in the shelves of supermarkets and confectionery stores around the world.

Contact Details:

Virgie’s Homemade Products
Telephones: (034) 434.1788, (034) 434.1588
Fax: (034) 434.6188
E-mail: virgieshomemade@hotmail.com