Opportunities in crisis

While expecting their second child in 1991, Rufino Jr. and Ana Manrique converted part of their 180 square meter house in Moonwalk Las Piñas into a bakery.

"It was time to prioritize the needs of the family. Our family was growing. There were family needs that our joint income as non-government organization workers could no longer meet," said Ana Manrique, vice-president for operations of Moonbake Inc.

The couple borrowed P50,000, without interest, from a friend to jumpstart the business, which was initially registered as a sole proprietorship. Aside from the couple, the business had three other workers — a baker, a sales clerk, and a delivery boy. A 17-year-old van was purchased to deliver bread to public and private schools.

The business eventually shifted from bread to chocolate crinkles.

"The bread business was good but the growing number of bakeshops in our area began to eat into our market. We decided to concentrate on a new product then called chocolate crinkles after we paid back the P50,000 that we owed our friend," said Manrique.

Product shift

It was Moonbake president Rufino Manrique, Jr., a mechanical engineer by education, who developed the formulation for the company’s Chocolitos-branded chocolate crinkles. Manrique took up baking seminars at the Technology and Livelihood Research Center as well as a two-year baking course at the Philippine Women’s University.

"Unlike bread, the new product had a longer shelf life of two to three weeks if kept at room temperature," said Ana Manrique. "Compared to bread, the margins were higher because the cost of producing chocolate crinkles was lower while the retail price was higher. And the best part of all, there was less competition."

Two years after its product shift, Moonbake was able to transfer its operations to a newly-built 580sqm. factory, which housed additional ovens and molding machines. The machines, together with the construction of the factory, cost about P3 million but enabled the company to increase its daily production of chocolate crinkles from 10,000 pieces to 100,000 pieces.

Six years since the Manriques opened their bakery, the business was hit by the higher world prices of its main ingredient, sugar. Competitors increased, attracted by high margins and the huge market.

Eye-opener

"It was about this time that we joined the 1997 National Trade Fair organized by the Department of Trade and Industry. While we had only one product, most of the exhibitors displayed a variety of products. Many buyers were also disappointed that the shelf life of our product was only three weeks," said Manrique. "We knew then that it was time to diversify our product line and to look at the export market."

Moonbake approached the Department of Science and Technology for a food processing technology that it could use. The company settled on the technology for canned laing, which is taro leaves cooked in coconut milk.

While keeping its still profitable chocolate crinkles operation going, Moonbake leased in 1999 a 1,000 sqm manufacturing plant at the Food Terminal Inc. in Taguig to house the cannery and factory of its canned line called Moondish.The company produces laing, Bicol express, breadfruit or kamansi, and banana hearts as well as sweets cooked in coconut milk such as corn and mungbean.

The daily production run is currently 12,000 cans, 70% of which is exported to Filipino communities in Guam, the Middle East, Japan, the United States, and Italy.

"Although annual sales has grown by only 10% since 1999, a 20% to 30% growth is not out of reach," said Manrique. "We are improving our sales and marketing strategy to widen our market reach. We are upgrading production, in terms of quantity and quality." This year, the company is set to buy new equipment that would double the number of its employees to meet market demand.