Ideas & Opportunities

After the Second World War, in 1945, the Ramoses reopened National Book Store on Rizal Avenue in Manila. A typhoon in 1948 soaked the store’s merchandise, but the couple bounced back two years later and offered more merchandise including greeting cards, which Nanay Coring designed using Filipino traditions as her motif. Later, she acquired the Philippine franchise for Hallmark cards, today one of the chain’s bestsellers, and in the 1960s went into publishing when McGraw-Hill, Prentice Hall, and other international publishers allowed her to reprint their textbooks to make them more affordable to Filipinos.

Hard work allowed the Ramoses to acquire their own building—a nine-storey structure, completed in 1965—and later to open Powerbooks, a specialty store, to address the reading public’s need for good titles at affordable prices.

It wasn’t long before National Book Store became the haunt of parents and students looking for school and office supplies and the top bookstore chain in the country. Nearly 65 years after the Ramos couple opened the first National Book Store on Escolta, the company’s red-and-white emblem is spread in over 70 locations and its branches manned by 2,500 employees. “I remember when the company decided to change the logo of National. I cried,” Nanay Coring says. “Ako lang kasi nag-design ng pinaka-unang logo niyan, pero siyempre, later on they decided na baguhin kasi sila naman ‘yung mga nag-aral. Pero iniyakan ko talaga ‘yun nung ako lang ang bumotong i-maintain ang lumang logo.”

Nanay Coring has no plans of retiring. She continues to check inventory, to negotiate with suppliers and publishers, and to observe customers’ buying habits. She takes time to read customer feedback in the suggestion boxes. “Ano naman ang gagawin ko sa bahay?” she says. “Sanay na ako nang may ginagawa and I’m happy kasi lagi akong busy. All my life I’ve never had a vacation, but I’m not complaining. It’s fun!”

Her knack for selling things has rubbed off on her three children. Alfred, the eldest son, is now president of the company. His twin, Benjamin, takes care of publishing, and Cecilia, the only daughter, handles the greeting-card market, the “Best Buy” brand, and store incentives such as the “Laking National” program.

The matriarch and her children now plan to increase their store outlets and to reach particularly those communities in the Visayas and Mindanao that have little or no access to affordable books and school supplies.

Nanay Coring credits the balance between tradition and change within the group for National Book Store’s success. Indeed, the store continues to adapt to the times, to reinvent itself and to embrace change while staying true to principles of hard work, perseverance, modesty, and customer service. “You have to adjust,” she says. “If you’re not open to change, your business can’t move on. Pero gusto ko ring ma-maintain yung values namin na friendly sa customer at friendly sa mga tao namin.”

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