Building a legacy of excellence and service

MANILA, Philippines - In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell states that aside from innate talent and drive, it takes “ten thousand hours of practice to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert in anything.”

Before becoming business magnates leading the country’s top conglomerates, the visionaries of our generation worked their way to the top, from the humble beginnings of selling shoes to delivering textiles on a bicycle. And before Michel Lhuillier became the founder and chairman of one of the country’s biggest and most successful financial companies, he spent the summers and weekends of his childhood years working in the jewelry stores of his father, Henry.

Michel says, “I learned jewelry appraisal, book-keeping and everything I could about my father’s business. The gene that makes people work hard runs strong in our family.”

Determination and hard work

The grand patriarch, Henry Lhuillier, a self-made man in the jewelry business in Cebu, instilled in his children the importance of hard work. Thus, Michel, the oldest in a brood of four, was taught hands-on about the various facets of the trade. At the age of seven, he was tasked every summer break to help out by doing various jobs such as jewelry appraisals and bookkeeping. These learnings from his father proved to be beneficial as they’ve helped mold him to understand and appreciate the jewelry business.

Even as a college student at De La Salle University in Manila, Michel resourcefully applied his entrepreneurial skills to make ends meet. He would walk almost a kilometer to school daily, and sold jewelry to his classmates to augment his allowance. Determined to establish his own business, he diligently worked to finish his bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and BA Commerce.

A few years after graduating from De La Salle, Michel married Amparito Llamas, a woman of Spanish lineage whose regal beauty is matched by her intelligence and charm. They had met in college, where Amparito was taking up Education. As they began their married life, Michel took up further studies and pursued a master’s degree in Business Administration at the University of the Philippines in Cebu. He augmented his income by selling jewelry to market stall owners, collecting payments twice a month from as far as Mindanao. 

When Michel’s father, Henry Lhuillier, passed away, he inherited three branches from his family’s jewelry business. Entrepreneurship further beckoned, which gave birth to Michel’s brainchild, the M.Lhuillier brand that was established in the 1980’s with flagship business in financial services.

Under Michel’s dynamic leadership, the M.Lhuillier steadily grew. He trailblazed pioneering services like Kwarta Padala, a money remittance service, which has changed the landscape of the local financial service industry. Today, many Filipinos from all walks of life greatly benefit from Kwarta Padala as they are able to send or receive money remittances from their loved ones through more than 1,400 M.Lhuillier branches nationwide. M. Lhuillier also has strong presence overseas with strategic alliances and partnerships with top financial and remittance companies around the globe, primarily in key cities such as the US, UAE, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, and Australia. Moreover, M. Lhuillier’s stand-alone outlets in California continue to grow to serve the many Filipinos who work and reside in various parts of the state.

Aside from jewelry and loan and remittance services, Michel continues to expand the M.Lhuillier Group of Companies by venturing into other businesses. The company’s portfolio now includes real estate holdings, construction projects, poultry farms, tropical fruit processing, and bulk water supply, as well as deli and wine exclusively distributed at The Gustavian, one of the 18 restaurants owned by the Lhuilliers. With branches in Banilad and Ayala Center in Cebu, the Gustavian specializes in European cuisine and houses a British pub called The Tap Room.With the company’s growth, they’re giving livelihood to 8,250 employees nationwide.