Paco’s best is yet to come

Francisco “Paco”  Delgado Magsaysay, at 55, is focusing his energy back into the family’s cable TV business after  an unexpectedly successful diversion into a niche ice cream business venture that has now been acquired by the Metro Pacific Group.

Paco is the founder of Carmen’s Best, an ice cream brand named after his daughter Carmen, that was an offshoot of a request from his father, former senator Ramon “Jun” Magsaysay Jr., to utilize, way back in 2010, some of the excess dairy production of the family’s Holly’s Milk farm production in Laguna.

Paco had actually been attending to the family’s cable TV business, Asian Vision Cable Holdings Inc., for 17 years at that time after returning to the Philippines in 1993.

That request to find some way to utilize the family’s excess milk production instead of letting it all go to waste, temporarily distracted Paco from the family’s long-established cable TV business for a relatively long 12 years.

Paco, in those 12 years from 2010 to 2022, was able to develop and grow Carmen’s Best into a niche premium ice cream brand, with no less than SM Supermalls being its biggest reseller, and captivating the taste buds of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. chief Manny V. Pangilinan early on in 2013.

Paco recalls that his first interaction with MVP actually began in 2007 when the MPIC head was expressing interest in acquiring the Magsaysay family’s Batangas Cable TV (Batangas CATV) business, as well as the Batangas Electric Cooperative (Batelec 2).

When former senator Jun Magsaysay chose to run for reelection in 2013, MVP contributed to his campaign, and as a token of gratitude, Paco sent “plenty” of Carmen’s Best ice cream to Pangilinan. That gesture eventually led to  a commercial partnership with MPIC’s agribusiness unit, Metro Pacific Agro Ventures Group, acquiring a controlling interest of 51 percent in the dairy firm in 2022.

Growing an ICT business

With Carmen’s Best now a well-known brand that is even served on the flag carrier’s international flights, Paco has decided to pick up where he left off in 2010, back to the family’s cable TV business.

This time around, however, Paco is getting ready to finally enter the much broader information and communications technology or ICT market, although still very much concentrating on its provincial business just at the outskirts of Metro Manila, following the same path that Converge is taking of expanding into fiber.

He points out that his goal is not to go head to head with telco giants PLDT and Globe whose investors “require maximum return.” On the contrary, Paco notes, there is less pressure for Asian Vision so that it can offer better pricing and pay more attention to servicing their higher tier corporate clients.

Additionally, while Converge, PLDT and Globe are also present in Asian Vision’s service areas, “we are able to get market away from them simply because  of our attention to our clients.” That attention and relationship,  Paco elaborates, convinces big clients such as the Laurels and their  Lyceum of the Philippines, and Yazaki Torres to stick with Asian Vision.

Paco also good naturedly admits that it also helps that “I am the son of Jun Magsaysay.” However, he qualifies that while connections open the door and allows you to put your foot in, “if your product does not sell, or if you have bad service, they will still leave you.”

That attention to detail and personalized service is part of the secret to success of Paco, who when he was still nurturing the growth of Carmen’s Best Ice Cream, used to personally deliver the product to resellers with whom he engages with to know them better and for them to also meet and know him and his concern for his clients.

Magsaysay and Delgado genes

Paco clearly continues to carry the best of his Magsaysay and Delgado genes – which is leadership and humility, and bold entrepreneurial skill.

Paco is truly his father’s son and his grandfather’s, beloved former president Ramon Magsaysay, apo. Ready to lead and lead by example even to his own children, and remaining humble and very much grounded, bearing no airs despite his sterling lineage.

The Delgado genes from his mother, Isabel Delgado, is  also evident in his entrepreneurial skill to find, pioneer, and grow his market.

Indeed, Paco straddles the best of both the political and business side of society. With the Delgado family well-known in the shipping and logistics business, and his father’s political heritage, Paco is able to move in that rarified circle.

He was invited to the Christmas tree lighting event in Malacanang last November and was surprised that a lot of politicians know him and are quite comfortable with him. He was even surprised that former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo knew him and his mom Isabel.

Paco, however,  is not interested in entering politics.

Toughest battle

The Magsaysay scion is not fazed by challenges as he has survived one of the toughest battle a human can face, and that was leukemia, a broad term for cancer of blood cells. He has been able to successfully undergo treatment for his condition, although it has made him a bit weak and he now needs to use a walking cane.

He relishes the role of an underdog because “that’s where I thrive the most”, and his decision to join the ICT shift is where he hopes to become the David that slays Goliath.