'From Me Tuyo' flying high

MANILA, Philippines - Albert Joseph Jr. has always been a hard worker. Barely out of college, he was a flight steward with Sterling Philippine Airways from 1977 to 1978, before joining Philippine Airlines (PAL).

Albertito started as domestic flight steward and retired as flight purser on May 6, 2009 after 30 years and 9 months of dedicated service.

Most retirees dream of going into business, especially with the prospect of a salary-less retirement in an uncertain future. As Albertiyo likes to say, “You snooze, you lose.”

Getting started is always the hardest part. For him, it began as an attempt to cook chili garlic sauce for his personal consumption. He tested his Super Garlic Chili Sauce on his fellow PAL cabin and cockpit crew.

Happily, orders started to come in and soon Albertito’s Super Garlic Chili Sauce was traveling around the world. Since he used soya oil for the chili sauce, he had another brilliant idea – how about marinating cooked tuyo fillets in chili-flavored soya oil?

Pure soya oil is tasteless and odorless and brings out the natural flavor of the tuyo. It does not contain cholesterol, and if used in lieu of trans and saturated fats, it may even help lower blood cholesterol.

After numerous attempts, Albertito now has three products on the market, which have passed the tests for commercial sterility and nutritional content from the Department of Science and Technology – super garlic chili sauce, tuyo spread with garlic, and tuyo fillets in soya oil.

Albertito’s products have a tested shelf life of two years and are enrolled with the DSI Philippine bar coding agency. “From me Tuyo” is available in Robinson’s Supermarket and also at CAIR snack bar inside the PAL Inflight Center near NAIA Terminal 2.

Believing this success was given to him for a higher purpose, Albertito has been inspired to share the business opportunity with others. Rather than making huge mark-ups, he keeps his products modestly priced and prefers to sell by volume.

As he points out: “It’s foolish to think you can become a millionaire overnight, but a P10 profit in volume can end up giving you P10 million.”

Albertito’s products are available for personal retailing, or distribution by private individuals who may even want to market these under their own labels. For more details, email [email protected].