A couple of firsts

What a difference eight months makes.

Towards end-December, 2002, the rumor that Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho was resigning caused the foreign exchange and stocks market to drop.

It was so bad – okay, it wasn’t so much because Lito Camacho was such a hotshot but because he provided the perception of stability for international investors – that President Macapagal-Arroyo had to publicly state that Mr. Camacho was staying in government.

Today, the same news hasn’t affected the markets a bit. Nor is the President expected to make a comment.

Then and now, Mr. Camacho is still on borrowing mode.

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Bangko Sentral Governor Rafael Buenaventura is off today to the United States, first to attend a conference in Colorado that he has conscientiously attended annually and then to take a much needed break.

Paeng Buenaventura should be back next month – which is just as well since there isn’t going to be much of quality golf playing in this kind of weather.

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Did you know 1: There’s a new milk entry called Milkybar, which (depending on one’s inclinations) either looks like a chocolate bar or powdered milk in sachet.

Milkybar is the newest market entry of Nestle Phils. which is headed by Savador Pigem. It is milk (with all its nutritional values) all right, developed by Goya Inc. for Nestle to attract children who might like candy but not milk.

Specifically, it’s the newest baby of confectionery integrated market assistant vice-president Star Estacio. (In the Nestle set-up, milk and coffee product lines fall under the grocery division).

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Did you know 2: It has taken Rustan’s Supercenters, Inc. president Bienvenido Tantoco III half the time to break even on the Shopwise-branded hypermarket than similar retail outlets internationally.

More specifically, Rustan’s Supercenters has broken even in three years or this year and expects to expand more quickly in 2004 with the opening of two or three more outlets.

Not many know that this is the first company within the Rustan’s Group that has entered into a joint venture. The Group, which is well-known for its aversion to sharing management control with non-Tantoco partners, holds a 60-percent stake while Investment & Capital Corporation of the Phils. (which is headed by Guillermo Luchangco) holds a 40-percent share.

In the case of Rustan’s Supercenters, Donnie Tantoco gets a lot of help from wife, vice-president for merchandising and marketing Catherine Yu-Tantoco, and from sister-in-law, assistant vice-president for marketing Frances Yu.