Splash brothers want another shot at beauty products

Notes on the beat

MANILA, Philippines — The Splash brothers are pursuing another title.

That’s not a reference to the legendary duo of former NBA champions Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson of the Golden State Warriors, but to young businessmen Alfonso Iñigo and Alexone Rolando Hortaleza, sons of Splash Corp. founder Rolando Hortaleza.

Aside from leading the Hortaleza Group of Companies to its next phase of growth, the siblings are heavily into the global fitness craze called Hyrox and are planning to team up to compete in a race next year.

“Among the common things that we do is fitness. Even my dad is involved and we join Hyrox,” Alexone, president and COO of Prime Global Corp., said.

“We do fun runs and we work out together sometimes. Those are our major bonding activities,” Alfonso, president of Prime Global Finance Corp., added.

Alexone and Alfonso already held key roles in Splash before the family sold the personal care products manufacturer in 2019.

But after serving mainly as “bench players” in the family’s business in the past, the siblings are now “starters” in their own right, with Alexone heading the fast-moving consumer goods business of the Hortaleza Group, while Alfonso leading the group’s financial services arm.

With Alexone at the helm, the Hortaleza Group is eyeing to make a major splash once more in the personal care and beauty industry.

“We’re very excited about the personal care and beauty because of two things. One, we will be returning to exfoliants since we’re very familiar in this category. The second thing we’re excited about is in cosmetics. If you’re familiar with the San San cosmetics brand, we will be returning by end-September,” he said.

The group’s principal platform for beauty and personal care products, Hortaleza Global Corp., offers accessible and market-responsive products addressing consumers’ personal care, beauty and wellness needs through a brand portfolio composed of Hortaleza MD and San San.

“Our family has 40 years of experience in personal care and beauty so we know the business very well. We still continue to see the gaps in the market. We see opportunities so it’s good for us to go back,” Alexone said.

Alexone’s Prime Global also has major plans in the food business, especially with the recent commissioning of the company’s P600-million facility in Bulacan.

He said the company’s old plant has a production capacity of only 600,000 bottles per month, while the new one hectare facility can go up to 1.2 million.

Prime Global leads the group’s food products portfolio, including Barrio Fiesta Food Products, an established Filipino food brand offering products rooted in traditional Filipino flavors.

“With this new facility, we can fulfill the capacity of our unserved orders for Barrio Fiesta and we can expand further. Before we are known mostly forbagoong, but now, we can expand to mixes, sauces and condiments,” Alexone said.

“Since the new facility has just been recently completed, we’re focusing first on unserved orders. By fourth quarter to first quarter next year, we can expand to new lines,” he added.

On Alfonso’s end, the group’s financial services also has a few tricks up in its sleeve.

Alfonso said the group plans to open a pawn business, which is going to be different from other pawnshops.

On lending, he said the company will be launching new products which are set to be the first in the financing industry.

“Right now, our growth agenda is geographic expansion because we focus on NCR, in fact it’s more of outside NCR. So right now our goal is to expand into NCR and also outside the big hubs like Central Luzon or the South,” Alfonso said.

Prime Global Finance or PGFC’s core business is providing financing to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), entrepreneurs and other business borrowers for working capital, asset acquisition and business expansion.

Complementing its primary focus on SME and business loans, PGFC also offers housing loans as an additional financing line.

Together, Alexone and Alfonso are introducing and incorporating technology-driven initiatives into the Hortaleza Group as they enter their next chapter.

The siblings intend to maximize all available tech tools, such as artificial intelligence, social media and digital marketing into the new Hortaleza Group.

They admitted, however, that the group remains under the guidance of their father, who, as the chairman and CEO of the board, is still involved in new products and strategies.

“Yung sakit ng ulo(headaches from the day-to-day operations), he has given that to us already,” Alexone said in jest.