"At that time, my children were all going to school and I had time on my hands," she said. "I decided to experiment with the buco pie, which was then popularized by the Pahid family in tandem with the wives of some American professors based in UP Los Baños."
It took six boxes of perfected pies given to family and friends before Ocampo-Belarmino decided to go into business. She had her kitchen oven, P200 worth of raw materials, and a rented stall along a road leading to UPLB. The product was marketed by word of mouth.
Today, Lety’s is on the verge of becoming an exporter, with an initial shipment of 22,000 boxes of blast-frozen buco pies to a Singapore-based company with presence in Singapore, Malaysia, and China this December.
"We are still looking for a consolidator who is willing to share the space of the reefer van with us," said Lety’s president Ignacio Belarmino.
Another possible foot in the export market is the company’s participation in the four-month Asian Food and Drinks Show in Japan, which also starts this December. "It was through a similar show–the 2002 Asian Ethnic Food Show organized by the Center for International Trade, Expositions and Missions–that we met our Singapore-based customer. He tasted our product and he saw its money-making potential abroad," said Belarmino
While the classic buco pie is the best-seller, the company has also ventured into buco variants that use durian, lychee, and pandan as well as other pie products such as cassava, ube, and carrot cake.
"It was our daughter-in-law, Aries Belarmino, who suggested the idea. After all, our customers might like to try something else," said Belarmino. "We produce and market these other products during weekends."
Aside from stalls along the highway of Los Baños, Lety’s has outlets beside the Plaza Agapita Lopez Ave. and the Shell gas station, both in Los Baños, as well as food carts in SM Megamall and in Glorietta, both in Metro Manila. The company also maintains a buying station at Barasoain St. near Zapote St., Makati where bulk orders can be taken and dropped. The orders can either be delivered or picked up by customers.
The pies sell for P80 in Los Baños, P90 in the bulk buying store in Makati, and P100 in Megamall and Glorietta.
One such requirement for potential exporters is the repackaging of the company’s boxes to make them stand out on the frozen food shelves abroad. The company invested P6,500 for a new design by the Packaging Research and Development Center of the Department of Science and Technology.
"They asked us all sorts of question such as what colors we wanted on the box," said Ocampo-Belarmino. "We were consulted all the way and we are very happy with the way our boxes have turned out. You can’t miss them. And every time I see our boxes being carried by customers in Los Baños or in the malls, I get a lift."
The box is not only colorful to reflect the tropics, it also incorporates the nutritional analysis and the product’s assigned bar code. It was also the DoST which suggested the use of aluminum pie plates for the local market and microwavable plates for the export market.
"Through DoST’s Small Enterprises Technology-Upgrading Program, we were able to borrow from the Technology Application and Promotion Institute to buy such major equipment such as a 10-kilo dough kneader, the dough roller which can handle 50 pies per setting, a blast freezer and a storage freezer," said Belarmino.
The company’s building and equipment add up to an investment of P2.5 million, of which P1 million was sourced from DoST. A commercial loan of P580,000 was used to purchase delivery vans.
Clearly, Lety’s had been doing its homework on how to succeed as an exporter.