Placenta invest P.5M on manufacturing plant

Placenta Formula Cosmetics Company Inc., the maker of beauty soap brand Placenta, recently opened a 500,000 capacity soap manufacturing plant in Taytay, Rizal to cope with the increasing bulk demand from the local market as well as abroad.

Previously, the company maintained its sub-contractors and small home-based manufacturing plant to make the Placenta soaps, however, due to encouraging sales performance, the company decided to invest half a million pesos to set up the plant.

Currently, the plant is operating at 100 percent capacity, producing a little over 500,000 pieces of soaps every month, 25 percent of which are exported to other countries in Asia, like Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, also in Middle East like Dubai, and parts of the United States.

Placenta Formula Cosmetics Company Inc., president and general manager Jaime V. Acosta said the Placenta products are selling vigorously in countries that host several Filipino workers.

Currently, the company is starting to penetrate Canada and Australia. He said aside from Filipino consumers, Placenta beauty soaps have also attracted foreign buyers.

The plant he said is still capable of manufacturing soaps, but in the next few years, the company plans to expand the capacity and eventually manufacture other line of cosmetics products such as toner and lotion.

In the Philippines, Acosta said they are threatened by the existence of imported beauty soaps, especially those that came from China.

"The Chinese products are a big threat to us, because they are sold cheap, and packaged it as imported which easily attracts Filipino consumers, however, there are still those who prefer quality," Acosta said in an interview.

He said Placenta soap brands, because it is a homegrown product, does not have enough budget for elaborate marketing and promotion exposure, what helped the company increased its foothold in the Filipino consumer is the effective "word-of-mouth" advertisement.

In the last six years, Acosta said the company is able to build its brand name because of quality, not because of expensive marketing and exposure moves.

The company made Cebu as its testing ground to market the Placenta beauty soap in 2000. Today, Acosta said the company's products, especially the new Placenta soap with its different variants, and the Olive C, have not only attracted the women market, but men as well.