Global goes local

These are two companies that have similar cultures but totally different beginnings. The owners have similar work ethic and both understand that being good at what they do is not just for themselves but for their workers.

Pampanga is known for its cooks and its furniture makers. And a mountain that has attached itself to the history of the province. You can’t talk about Pampanga without mentioning Mt. Pinatubo or the decade of calamities and reconstruction following the eruption; thousands of families that lost their homes, their livelihoods and their hope. It’s almost unbelievable how the province has risen, given that this was a province that lost bridges, roads, and entire townships.

Kapampangans are resilient and you’ll know this as soon as you see a piece of furniture made by its craftsmen. You see pieces of wood – blank canvases if you will – transformed into beautifully carved pieces or rattan chairs woven by hand. One chair takes an entire day to weave, said one furniture maker. Imagine the painstaking effort to produce 10, a hundred or a thousand.

More Than a Chair, whose factory is located in Mabalacat, and Isla Filipina, located in Clark Field, are just two of the export companies that help keep the country’s economy afloat.

It’s a cliché, but these people are making more than furniture – they are making a future for their workers and a society that sometimes turns a blind eye to the beauty of its local products.

More Than A Chair

Allan Bituin, owner and president of More Than a Chair, was born into furniture royalty. His parents founded the company that put the town Betis, long known for its wood carvers, on the international map. The family company was Betis Crafts, now known as JB Woodcraft, which had been exporting furniture to high-end retail shops all over the world since Allan was a kid.

When he decided to strike out on his own in 1998, Allan Bituin could have asked his mother Myrna to borrow some of her skilled people. You know, to show his people the ropes. But to his credit, he hired all young and inexperienced people because he "wanted to create a new culture, our own company culture different from my parents’." His people trained under a French furniture maker, and with them they learned how to compete in the trade.

Allan finished marketing at San Beda, then he studied furniture production and management for a year in Europe. When he came back, he went to AIM for his master’s in entrepreneurship, but says sheepishly he hasn’t completed his business plan. Looking around the factory, we know he can wing it. After all, his company has grown big in only five years.

When More Than A Chair started, its client was Allan’s parents. MTAC would fill up the orders and sell them to JB Woodcraft. They were a subcontractor, in short.

Did he give his mother a low rate? Allan laughs and says, "Siyempre. Alam niya yung presyo eh!"

His baptism of fire in the furniture industry started with Crate & Barrel, the American home store that has over a hundred stores across the United States and an online store. Crate & Barrel ordered 800 chairs on a 45-day deadline.

"Nabigla kami," says Allan with a laugh. "For four Sundays we were working continuously." They must have done a terrific job since Crate & Barrel is their biggest buyer now.

Not all orders are heart-pounding, however. MTAC has also produced only 24 pieces and that’s the full life cycle of the design. "The ones with few pieces are premium because they’re limited as compared to products for which we sell thousands of pieces."

Today Allan’s company produces "only one percent for my mom, the rest is our own export."

To differentiate his designs from that of JB Woodcraft, More Than A Chair is going towards "simpler lines, more contemporary, less ornate." Though Allan admits that many of their designs still carry hand-carved details, these are not as lavish as the designs of his parents’ company.

"I don’t know if it’s the age or what," he says of the direction he wants to take. The average age of his 130 employees is below 30; the head of his research and development team is a 29-year-old architecture graduate, Chris Rivera. "Puro bata kami dito," says Allan with a smile.

More Than a Chair also makes furniture for wholesalers who maintain showrooms in High Point, "some are branded furniture, others are not," and to manufacturers who buy wooden frames and then do the upholstery abroad.

MTAC does mostly wooden furniture – a tradition from his hometown Betis, to be sure – though they are starting to add leather and caning in their designs. "The demand for solid wood is there, it’s a very big market. My mom, for instance, has clients such as Marge Carson, Ferguson Copeland and the London shop And So To Bed."

Even for dog houses, solid wood scores well. Take the dog house they made for the company Sarreid. It looks like a miniature Roman Forum in wood!

In the future, Allan wants to explore the accessories market. He knows there’s a big, big demand for these items. A lesson he learned when he started his company is that before trying to get new buyers, one must first explore the existing ones. His company used to make only chairs (hence the name, otherwise he might have named it More Than a Chair, a Table and a Lamp!), until Allan realized that for every pair of chairs they sold, they could have also sold a coffee table or end tables or even night stands. So they began to manufacture these pieces, too.

Today, he looks forward to his foray into the local market, starting with the ongoing exhibit at SM Megamall mounted by the Chamber of Furniture Industries of the Philippines . "We used to do local, but only here at the first building of the Factory Outlet," he says. "The outlet center did very well, especially since other locators were also exhibiting their products. Di ba sa States there are outlet centers that really make your trip worthwhile with their low prices? It was like that with this facility, people driving up to Baguio would stop by and buy furniture."

He’s right. Every time I drove past the big "Factory Outlet" sign on the way to my grandmother’s house in Tarlac or to Baguio, I would tell myself that I would stop by next time and look at the furniture. Unfortunately, they have since stopped exhibiting. The facility where MTAC is located was built for post-Pinatubo for furniture factories and to lower the unemployment rate. It’s located on the highway after the St. Ines exit, going to Concepcion, Tarlac.

Only 29 years old, Allan looks at his job as one big challenge. In an industry known for creative geniuses, for building things out of the most unlikely materials (think of the lahar accessories that made the rounds in bazaars a few years ago), for brimming with talented designers and craftsmen, it’s tough to get noticed. "My dad went to the FAME show last month and he was surprised na ang dami nang magandang design pero these people are able to come up with new designs pa. Duon magaling ang mga Pilipino. Kaya lang sa cost when you’re competing with China and Vietnam, talo tayo, so we have to add value to our products."

"It’s fun when you get to outsmart your competitors by coming up with products that they haven’t thought of," Allan says. "Then you get appreciated for doing a job well, when a buyer reorders. The business is not just about coming up with designs but also making sure you’re able to deliver your products on time."

Isla Filipina

Isla Filipina, the local arm of the export company Golden Cane International, was the first locator in Clark Field after the American bases pulled out and Mt. Pinatubo erupted.

In 1993, only two years after the eruption and right smack in the middle of the worst lahar flows that plagued the province, Clark was a virtual ghost town. Nobody really knew what was going to happen despite government plans of turning it into an economic zone and an airport.

Isla owner and president Frocy G. Pascual, however, saw the potential of Clark under the blanket of gray dust. She signed up to lease three hectares of space even as Mimosa was still negotiating for their land.

Frocy is a veteran in the furniture business. She and her husband have been at it for 17 years, providing jobs for 3,000 people – yes, that’s how big the company is, but the size also reflects the traditions they follow, of making each chair, each loveseat, each sofa by hand and not by machine.

Why not do it by machine to lower the cost? Frocy smiles and says, "Buyers still prefer hand-woven furniture. Instead of a disadvantage, we see it as our edge. Kahit na sa China marami silang machine na puwedeng mag-weave, ours is worth it naman. Iba pa rin ang gawa natin. Napag-aralan na namin ang system, our prices remain competitive."

Golden Cane sells to mid and high-end retail shops such as Marks & Spencer (which is in their top five buyers) and House of Frazier in London; in the US, stores such as Crate & Barrel Pottery Barn and Pier One.

Both the export and local company specialize in furniture made of rattan, wicker, wood, and now also stone. Golden Cane is, in fact, in the top six furniture exporters of the country and Frocy would like Isla Filipino to follow suit. "Isla doesn’t have wide distribution yet. We get walk-in buyers and we’re strong in the institutional category. We furnish hotels, like for Fontana Resort in Clark we did 150 villas – the terrace, bedroom living room, bathroom and even the curtains because we distribute Spanish fabrics."

Frocy says they’re looking at Makati’s Greenbelt area for a showroom in the future. Their present one is actually a restaurant also owned by Frocy and her husband. Called Savarin, it serves Mediterranean food and is located on Kalayaan Avenue in Diliman, QC.

"In Savarin, people see the furniture in their settings. Those who like the chairs can take them home," she laughs.

Well, that certainly puts a new meaning to doggie bags.

And if you like to see more of her furniture in Manila you can go to the Senators’ Lounge at the Senate building in Manila, which Isla Filipina also services (it’s both a furniture and food company!). "We started in the food business only because my husband and I both love to eat!"

The furniture showroom at Clark features indoor and outdoor chairs, sofas, etageres, end tables, coffee tables, folding screens, and accessories.

Looking at the different weaves of the chairs, we ask Frocy what the difference is between rattan and wicker. She explains that "rattan split is the skin of the rattan, wicker is what’s inside. Rattan poles may come in one inch or one-inch-and-a-half in diameter. When you weave rattan skin, iba yung effect, parang two-toned; wicker naman can be dyed in different colors."

It was her interest in these materials 17 years ago that got her into the business. "My husband and I studied how these materials could be used for furniture, it was really a lot of hard work getting the company off the ground. But in our first five years, we received a Golden Shell award."

Isla Filipina and Golden Cane’s facility in Clark is for finishing, two bigger factories located in Mabalacat and Nueva Ecija take care of the weaving and forming of the metal frames up to the finishing and polishing.

Frocy says proudly of her companies: "They’re a hundred percent Filipino owned. It’s a family corporation."