Habagat outdoor equipment mulls entering export market

Homegrown outdoor equipment manufacturer Habagat is considering export opportunities for its long term corporate plan, as it already gained patronage in the Philippine market.

The company, which started its business with P5,500 pooled capital in a "borrowed garage" somewhere in uptown Cebu in 1988, is now supplying the outdoor equipment demand especially for mountaineers both the domestic and foreign tourists.

In an interview with Eloisa E. Segarra, the company's operations manager, Habagat is entertaining plans to enter the huge export market, as officials are now trying to build trade partnership in different countries, like New Zealand and Canada.

The company, which maintains its manufacturing plant at Archbishop Reyes Street in this City, is currently partnering with 14 retail operators as dealers nationwide.

Its sister company Summit Outdoor Equipment & Services, Inc. is managing the four Habagat shops located in the major cities in the Philippines.

The brand has been able to compete with world-renowned outdoor equipment names, and enjoy a major market share in the outdoor equipment market in the country.

"Our customers are not just Filipinos, we also got a lot and growing demand from foreign customers," Segarra said.

Recently, Habagat introduced its limited 300 designs of mountaineers' backpack product named "Sigbin", which caters mostly to the "professional" mountaineers or backpackers market.

"We are trying to introduce more products to fit the growing need and specific requirement of our target market," she added.

The Habagat brand was introduced some 17 years ago, by Cebuano mountaineers, out of their frustrations of the non-availability of affordable outdoor equipment products in the country.

With only P5,500 investment, Junks Mauna, Randy Su, and Dindo Sugatan, all young, struggling architects and avid mountaineers, formed Habagat Outdoor Equipment and set up shop in a borrowed garage.

Based on the company's corporate profile, the first models, which they themselves designed, patterned and sewed on a grandmother's old sewing machine gained favorable response from peers and fellow mountaineers.

Orders started coming in from friends and relatives, encouraging them to hire them to hire a full-time professional hi-speed sewer.

With the rapidly growing demand for their products and the subsequent increase in product, the company find it harder to manage all aspects of the business which include; manufacturing, sales and marketing, its sister company Summit Outdoor Equipment and Services Inc. was created in 1991 to efficiently handle the marketing, distribution and retailing aspects.

The company heavily supports the development of the country's eco-tourism and conducts various outdoor activities Eco-Treks to promote the Philippines' unexplored natural wonders and forests.