Growing together

Millie Kilayko was working for Negros Occidental Governor Daniel Lacson in 1990 when plummeting world prices took the sweetness out of sugar. "Our entire economy depended on sugar. To survive, we had to change the economic landscape of the province. We had to look for business alternatives to sugar," she said.

Bonded by crisis, the Negrenses went to work.

Kilayko linked up with Lacson’s wife and good friend, Tima, to put up a plant business called Sweet Greens Co. Using three of the eight hectares of land in Talisay owned by the Kilayko family, the two friends began breeding high value plants like orchids.

"We made a lot of mistakes in the first few years," said Lacson. "It’s important to take chances but you can’t stay too long on your mistakes. You must move on," added Kilayko.

In an effort to speed up the orchid’s three-year gestation period, Sweet Greens bought grown plants.

"We didn’t realize then that by buying menopause plants, we wouldn’t be able to produce as many new plants as we wanted. Because we had less plants to sell, our real return on investment was much less than the one we targeted," she said.

It took Sweet Greens close to four years to put together the right crop. Through trial and error, the company learned to use volcanic rock instead of coconut husk as a more efficient plant medium. It also learned that plants are a better business than cut flowers. "With an investment of P1,000, you can get back P20,000," said Kilayko.

Diversification

In 1999, Sweet Greens ventured into clay pot production. To a large extent, it was an unplanned but logical next step that came about when an exporter of ceramics with a factory near the company’s Talisay farm offered to sell the business for P1.5 million. Eventually, the exporter gave his final offer: P300,000, one year to pay.

"We asked the owner to give us the weekend to think it over," said Kilayko. "I prayed for guidance. Throughout that weekend, every time I opened the Bible, I would see the words, clay and pottery."

Sweet Greens took over the ceramics business in July and joined the National Trade Fair two months later. It won the best product design that year and the next two years.

It hopes to bag the design prize for the fourth time in next month’s NTF, which is heavily subsidized by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Division of labor

With two product lines, the partners divided the labor. Lacson took care of the plants and Kilayko took care of the pots. Both, however, made sure the other knew what was going on and both did marketing work.

Aside from orchids and brome-liads, Sweets Greens also produces the millennium hibiscus or multi-layered gumamela, which was developed by the UP Institute of Plant Technology. "We are one of only three companies in the country which paid a royalty fee of P70,000 to produce the millennium," said Lacson.

To expand production, the company took out a P1 million loan from Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. "We borrowed in March, 1997 when the interest rate was 14%. After the Asian financial crisis, the interest rate went up to 30%," said Kilayko. Despite the high rates, Sweet Greens borrowed another P6 million the next year.

Sweet Greens’ plants are distributed mainly in the Visayas, mainly in department stores in Bacolod, Cebu and Iloilo. The company also follows the fiestas in the Visayas to sell its plants.

The first time the company rented out space inside a department stores, friends protested and protested harder when they learned the monthly lease was P23,000. "Our friends told us we were crazy and that we were throwing money away," she said. "We charged the rent to advertising expense."

Three months later, the department store gave them lobby space at a rental of P14,000 a month. After transforming the lobby into a garden the first year, the department store upped the rent to P60,000 or 10% of gross sales, whichever is higher. Today, Sweet Greens only displays its plants in the department store only during May.

Enjoyable

Unlike its competitors, Sweet Greens has a higher overhead cost because it uses professional managers. It also regularly employs 60 workers, which can increase by an additional 60 in the factory during the September to December peak season. It also outsources some of the production to rebel returnees.

"With managers to run the business, Tima and I can do what we like doing best," said Kilayko, who as a child wanted to be in the ice cream business because she wanted to give the names to the different ice cream flavors.

Today, it is Kilayko who has made it her job to give the pot collections such names such as Bebek, after a famous landscape artist based in Bali, and Dancing Moon.

Initially meant to functionally hold plants, Sweet Greens pots are now designed as home accessories. Late last year, the company exported some of its production to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. This year, it has been invited by the European Chamber of Commerce to participate in the gifts and home accessories fairs in Frankfurt and in Milan.

"We don’t believe in saving out best products for export. We believe the best should be reserved for the local market," said Kilayko.

Despite its healthy sales, the company still does wedding giveaways for people who patronized the business in its early years. "Never turn your back on people when you’re going up," said Lacson.

Support system

Because many people have indeed helped them, both Kilayko and Lacson also make it a point to help starting entrepreneurs and to share buyers. "If we don’t have enough capacity to fill an order, we will share the order with others," said Kilayko.

In most cases, the sharing of expertise and clients is with fellow members of the Association of Negros Producers, one of the country’s most successful business associations that is being replicated in other provinces.

The products of association members are sold in a showroom leased for P1 a year from the provincial government. Although it also links the association with different government agencies in Metro Manila, the provincial government does not meddle in the business.

Last year, sales generated from the ANP showroom was 300% higher than previous year. But perhaps a more visible sign that prosperity has returned to Negros are the people who go to Bacolod’s many restaurants. "Before, everybody knows everybody . Now, there are more new faces," said Kilayko. – MJGrey