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Sunday, May 27, 2012
Joseph Calata: Self-made billionaire at 31
By: Marge C. Enriquez
Philippine Daily Inquirer
JOSEPH Calata with his signature waistcoat and rockabilly pompadour. PHOTO BY NELSON MATAWARAN
On a sweltering summer day, and belying a mean schedule, Joseph Calata looked fresh and relaxed as he strode into the lounge at Mandarin Oriental Manila.
He wore a dark three-piece Zara suit, his no-nonsense look offset by his trademark quiff and Rayban Wayfarers.
When the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) rings the bell on May 23, the 31-year-old self-made billionaire will become the country’s youngest businessman ever to list his company through an initial public offering. He will also become the youngest chairman of a PSE-listed entry.
Calata has transformed a modest family business into the country’s largest distributor of agriculture products and veterinary medicine. The net proceeds from Calata Corp.’s P270-million IPO are earmarked for the expansion of retail outlets nationwide.
“It’s also effective in getting international deals,” Joseph said. “If there are other countries looking for an agricultural company to invest in, it’s easier if the company is listed.”
The launch of Calata Corp. in the stock exchange is the highest point in his career so far. The company scored P2.7 billion worth of revenues last year.
It took some organization, calculated risks and luck for him to amass such a fortune. Instinctively, he adopted the principles embraced by billionaires: Save money, live frugally, keep the nose on the grindstone, create long-term plans, and make the best use of your resources.
“Outside of Manila, such as Bulacan and Nueva Ecija, everybody thrives on agriculture,” Calata explained. “We see only the roads and the stores but behind those are rice fields, piggeries and poultry farms. What I sell is the input for what people eat. For them to eat rice, fertilizer for the soil is needed; while the rice is growing, it needs agrochemicals. I also supply the seeds. In all, the life of rice is supplied by Calata. We also provide what pigs and chickens eat.”
Minding The Store
Born and raised in Bulacan, Joseph speaks eloquent Tagalog and makes broad animated gestures with his hands, his face intermittently lighting up.
He has always been driven by high aspirations. He went to a Catholic boy’s school in Bulacan. At De La Salle University (DLSU), he took up B.S. Math but shifted to Management of Financial Institutions.
Enterprising by nature, he joined a networking operation that sold multivitamins and other food supplements. He recruited people and put them through a seminar to help him sell the supplements.
CALATA Corp. earned the respect of the industry for its high standards and professionalism. PHOTO BY NELSON MATAWARAN
In five months, he made P400,000 from commissions.
“I taught them everything about the products and threw in service opportunity strategies, and actively encouraged them,” he recalled.
After graduating from DLSU, Joseph joined the family business, J. Melvin’s, a poultry feed store in Plaridel, Bulacan. It had been incorporated under the name Planters Choice Agro Products established by his parents Eusebio and Isabel in 1978. The store was named after Joseph and his older brother Melvin. His father was an agricultural trader; his mother, a working student before she married.
Joseph said he’s moved by his mother’s sacrifice. She worked hard six days a week to provide her four children the best education possible. Before jumping in, Joseph observed that the business was run like a sari-sari store. The core product, animal feeds, would be weighed on the spot and handed to customers, and the money was kept in a money pot or in a drawer.
“I saw that the assistant could easily pilfer money if he or she wanted, whenever my mother went to the restroom,” he said.
“There was no audit, no POS (point of sale/transaction) checkout. At the end of any given day, the assistant could say, ‘Ma’am, we have P20,000 worth of sales.’ What if it was really P30,000? My mother would have no way of knowing because there was no inventory head. The store was probably making money because she was able to send all of us to school.”
Although J. Melvin’s had branches in Malolos, its main market were the farmers in Plaridel.
“The business was run Binondo-style. Mom was cashier and purchaser. She would deposit the money in the bank. Ultimately, you couldn’t expand with that system,” said Joseph.
Taking the reins
He envisioned the backyard business as a professional corporation. He bought an accounting software that took him a year to master and tailor-fit to the store.
“It was definitely trial-and-error but I wanted to prove that it could be done with patience and determination,” he said. “I asked myself, ‘Will I end up working in this store, merely giving change for animal feed?’ I decided to professionalize it. I worked 24/7. I could not make a new transaction if the previous day’s sales had not been encoded…because I saw how things would pile up. I wanted to perfect the system. I had to know how much we made every day. Was there profit? How much?”
Joseph was single-minded in proving that putting a system (and a paper trail) in place was the way to go. Although recording the inventory was tedious, it guaranteed accuracy. Joseph and a staffer would do separate inventories; he often spotted discrepancies.
POULTRY is raised in climate-controlled conditions. PHOTO BY NELSON MATAWARAN
Like anyone introducing innovation in a traditional setup, Joseph met opposition.
The customers now had to pass through him as the cashier so he could encode transactions. They found this method too slow. They grew impatient in the long queues and left in a huff. His mother and relatives asked him to dump his system because it messed up the business.
Eusebio thought his son was building castles in the sky. “I told him I would be like a Gokongwei one day,” Joseph chuckled.
His mother resisted additional expense, such as added manpower and a P2,000 printer.
Joseph was not about to stop. Out of his P8,000 monthly salary, he allotted P2,000 for his salesman who went around with a list of products. He also used his own money to buy the printer. “All I wanted was to increase sales,” he recalled.
His effort at computerization was rewarded when, one day, the records reflected a grave error. “It showed that P100,000 was paid twice to a supplier,” he related. Isabel was won over.
In 2004, Joseph took over the reins and expanded the business across Luzon. He was right to sense that the potential was huge. “There was a big demand for our products—feeds, agrochemicals, fertilizers. We just had to tap it.”
As the revenue sheets ballooned, Joseph earned the respect of suppliers and, soon enough, the banks. “I have kept a clean record with banks. As for the suppliers, I always honor my word. When they set a direction, I follow.”
Positive outlook
By 2009, the company had earned P1.8 billion. It was renamed Calata Corp. It has since established a partnership with San Miguel Corp. (SMC) for the latter’s farm operations in Isabela and Davao, and chicken-raising for the Magnolia brand.
“We have 80,000 chickens every month in a climate-controlled system,” he said. “We plan to expand. In Davao, we plan to raise 500,000. Our breeder farm partnership with Monterey (San Miguel’s meat product brand) is in Isabela, the nucleus farm in the whole of Luzon. Meaning, we have the great-grandparent stock that SMC gives the breeders.”
He has earned the confidence of such companies as San Miguel Corp.-B-Meg, Syngenta and Bayer Crop Science. They appreciate his professionalism and sound corporate organization.
“I aligned myself with their vision,” he explained. He added he’s very straightforward in his dealings and put premium on integrity.
Calata has been sharing his good fortune with Gawad Kalinga, Child Protection Network, Cinemalaya, Spouses of Heads of Missions Charities, US Ambassador’s fundraising for Smokey Mountain, Empowering Brilliant Minds Foundation, Red Cross and Fashion Watch.
Ultimately, his accomplishments are founded on a compelling inner strength. “When there are problems, I’m focused—I don’t panic. I don’t give up easily. When there’s a problem, I see it as an opportunity.”
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Learn More About Our Trees
Bloom Of The Week
By NORBY BAUTISTA
This driveway leading to a hostel in Peñablanca, Cagayan Valley is lined with beautiful native trees that provide shade for pedestrians. (Photo by NOEL B. PABALATE)
MANILA, Philippines — Filipinos are being encouraged to appreciate the importance of our Philippine native trees. Our trees thrive well in the Philippine setting and they give the natural landscape that distinctive Filipino look. Most of our trees were introduced from other countries. These include the Acacia, Mahogany, African Tulip, Sampaloc, Calachuchi and most of our fruit trees. Only a few like the Narra and Talisay are native trees.
Not many people can identify some truly native trees and what they can be used for. Learning from old folks has been instrumental in familiarizing us with some of them. We have shade trees like the Agoho, Antipolo, Balitbitan and Banuyo. Some trees have medicinal properties like the Alagau, Banaba, Bani and Lagundi. The important timber tree species includes Narra, Apitong, Bagras, Bagtikan, Malapapaya, Bangkal, Batino, Dita, Dao and Molave. We also have trees that produce colorful sprays of flowers such as Narra, Anilaw, Mangkono, Aunasin, Bagawak Morado, Balai Lamok, Banaba, Kamuning and Mali-Mali. For fruits and nuts, we have Anubing, Mangga (Kalabaw and Pahutan), Talisay, Mabolo or Kamagong, Katmon, Bignay, Bitungol, Kalumpit, Lipote and Marang. We also have vegetable trees like Aunasin, Bago and Kamansi.
Native trees are icons of the beauty and the bounty of our natural heritage. The Philippines boasts of about 3,600 identified native trees of which 67 percent are endemic, meaning they are found only in our archipelago.
There is a need for them to be conserved and protected. Most of the native trees in our forests are fast disappearing as most of them are used for timber and paper production. Furthermore, they are being replaced by exotic invasive tree species like the popular Mahogany, which is actually not good for our wildlife. Trees clean our air, fertilize our soil, absorb floods and provide a habitat for birds, butterflies and other tree dwelling animals. The non-use of our trees endangers their existence as they can end up as weeds. We should learn more about what they can for us so that the public will at least be aware of their value and make an effort to preserve them.
Our native trees come in different sizes, shapes,and shades of green in combination with other hues of other colors. Leaves may range from large to tiny, round to elongated, thick to paper-thin, waxy to rough. Trunks also have many shapes and texture from straight to twisting to gnarled, singular or branched, smooth or covered with rough bark. Roots may grow vertically down and deep, or buttressed and shallow. The combinations are endless and they can suit any type of urban landscaping requirement.
A team of environmentally conscious native tree-advocates is publishing a colorful and informative book on native trees. Entitled “Philippine Native Trees 101… Up Close and Personal,” it is being published by Green Convergence for Safe Food, Healthy Environment and Sustainable Economy (GC). The project team is composed of Dr. Angelina P. Galang, Sylvia Mesina, Marie Marciano, Imelda Sarmiento and Arceli Tungol, who served as the book’s chief photographer.
I’m very sure that the book will benefit both garden aficionados and plant hobbyists alike, as it’s supposed to be an eye opener on the value of our native trees. We are hoping to see the book by the end of May this year.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Beekeeping is alternate livelihood for La Union’s tobacco farmers
By: Marla Viray
Inquirer Northern Luzon
BACNOTAN, La Union—For this tobacco-producing province, promoting a healthier image does not stop at just banning smoking in casinos and public areas.
It goes as far as adopting a healthier lifestyle and finding an alternative livelihood in honey production.
According to provincial agriculturist Imelda Sannadan, beekeeping has always been a backyard industry in La Union but it has not really been taken advantage of.
This is because the tobacco industry had provided a good livelihood for the farmers until the global campaign against smoking reduced demand for tobacco leaves.
To give farmers an alternative livelihood, Sannadan says the La Union government started promoting apiculture development in 2000, when Republic Act 9151 was passed.
The law created the National Apiculture Research Training and Development Institute (Nartdi) at the Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University here.
The La Union Honeybee Center started full operations in September last year to make the province the “honeybee capital of the north.”
“The center serves as a facility for processing raw honey, as well as an equipment store for those who want to start beekeeping,” says Vissia Jadraque, honey equipment operator at the center.
BEE Pollen (top) and Honey and proplis soap products on display. Photo by Marla Viray, Inquirer Northern Luzon
Beekeepers can sell their raw honey for P250 to P270 a kilogram, provided it passes the standard moisture content.
From only 10 beekeepers in 2000, there are now 42 beekeepers, all trained by Nartdi, who comprise the La Union Beekeepers Development Cooperative (Lubdco).
About 70 families, however, engage in private backyard beekeeping in the province, and more farmers are getting interested, says Sanaddan.
However, the honeybee center does not just allow any person to buy equipment and start beekeeping on his own. Training is a requirement before one buys equipment for backyard beekeeping.
“They should first be trained by Nartdi because beekeeping and hive management is not as simple as it looks,” says David de Castro, apiculturist and research assistant of Nartdi.
De Castro says two five-frame nucleus starter hives, costing at least P6,000 each, are needed to start beekeeping. When their population increases and re-hiving is needed, the bees need to be transferred to an eight-frame standard hive.
He says a comb, or one back-to-back frame, contains at least 2,000 bees, producing a minimum of 2.5 kg of honey. There are about 170 starter and standard hives in Nartdi’s apiary in front of the honeybee center.
Records from the Department of Agriculture show that 1,190.571 kg of raw honey were bought from members of Lubdco in February and in first two weeks of March.
Photo by Marla Viray, Inquirer Northern Luzon
The raw honey is processed into bottled pure honey, which is packaged into 300-gram bottles and sold for P130 each, and 10-ml packs sold for P10 each.
Honey byproducts produced in the center include honey vinegar, massage oil, all-purpose balm, honey and propolis (substance collected by bees from leaf buds and tree barks) soap and bee pollen.
Ferdinand Geslani, DA provincial nursery laborer, says the Canadian Executive Service Organization provided technical knowledge and assistance to the center in producing the honey byproducts.
Honey is the One Town One Product (Otop) of La Union. The province’s apiculture program has been cited by the government as the Luzon Island Best Otop Implementor.
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