A Pampanga-based food company that started as a backyard venture in the 1970s is now making inroads into foreign markets.
Established by two public school teachers and their five sons, Mekeni Food Corp. has expanded its portfolio of products from the traditional tocino and longaniza into internationally-accepted processed meat products such as sausage and bacon.
Now a world-class meat processor, Mekeni exports regularly to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. It also exports to Australia and will soon reach the supermarkets of Japan, Canada, New Zealand and European countries.
“This time we will showcase our products to the European market. We believe that we already have that certain level of global competitiveness that has sustained us all these years of struggling to be the best we can be,” says Mekeni president Prudencio Garcia who flew to France recently to receive another global award on behalf of the company.
Garcia received the “world commitment to quality award” diamond category at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Paris.
Mekeni is currently busy preparing the product packaging for two kinds of sausages that will be exported to Japan. “We are the first processed food company accredited by the Japanese government to export to Japan. And because of that, we have been receiving calls from many Japanese businessmen as they inquire about our company and our products. We consider this another feather on our cap considering the very stringent food quality standards Japan requires from exporters like us,” Garcia says.
Export target
He says in the next two years “we see our company exporting far more than 3 percent [of total sales]. We want to be able to penetrate further the global market by increasing our export target to 40 percent of total sales while keeping the rest of 60 percent on the local front,” says Garcia.
“We hope to engage companies to do business with us. Toll packaging is a business model that we are also open to do with multinationals. We can do it in their country with the support they will give us or we can also do toll manufacturing here in the Philippines. We follow what multinationals do here,” he says.
Mekeni, a Pampango word that means “come here” has an ISO 2200 certified food facility in the Philippines that won for three consecutive years as the best meat processing plant “AAA” category and the 2014 MVP Bossing Award.
It is the first food company in the Philippines to get food safety system certification and the first in Asia and the Philippines for food safety management system from the International Safety Organization.
Globally, it won the International Arch of Europe Frankfurt Germany Platinum Award in 2013 and Century International Quality Era Award gold category in Geneva, Switzerland in 2012.
Mekeni is also preparing to penetrate the Asean market in the next few years.
Garcia says state-run Development Bank of the Philippines supported the company’s expansion overseas.
“As we gear for expansion and in need of financial assistance, the only financial institution willing to give us the loan was the Development Bank of the Philippines. In one of their conditions, they said we should go into exports to help the country gather more foreign exchange. This is on top of environmental concerns and of coaxing us to be the leader in our field. The DBP window came at a time when no financial institution was willing to give any Pampanga company loans of more than P10 million because of the lahar tragedy. Now, I think the bank has extended to us about P300 million worth of assistance. We are still paying for that, mind you. But we are definitely glad that somebody has that enough confidence in us that we will make it through despite our grim situation,” says Garcia.
The initial loan of P50 million in 2001 was used to put up state-of-the-art manufacturing plant.
Today, Mekeni is building a hive of companies to support its core business which is processed food production. It set up a company of merchandisers to promote its products in supermarkets, groceries and other vending outlets.
Power plant
A third company it plans to create is a power generation company with a 2-megawatt facility to supply the power requirement of the business. The power plant will run on pelletized garbage that will be supplied by households within the immediate radius of the company site.
Garcia is the second in a brood of five male siblings. He received his basic education in Porac, Pampanga and made his way to Manila to take Accounting in one of the well-established universities.
A consistent honor student from grade school to college, Garcia graduated cum laude and worked as an accounting manager in a cement company in Damam, Saudi Arabia.
However, he says the challenges he encountered in running a business could not be found in any of the books he read in school.
When he return from the Middle East, Garcia made a mental note to pursue his career as accountant, this time in the US where most of his co-workers in Saudi Arabia moved on, if his family would support his proposal to close the family business because of the foot-and-mouth disease that affected local livestock.
“We started little like a backyard business. It was in the 90s when the foot-and-mouth disease hit the Philippines. With 40 or so manpower and our business being pork-based, I told my brothers that it’s either we close the business or lay-off people. That’s something we agreed on but our father, Tatang Felix made us rethink this decision. He reminded us that the reason we came back from abroad was to provide employment to people, so shutting down the company was never an option for him. From there we talked to our workers and with them offering a solution to work part-time on a shifting basis, we started again,” he recalls.
Garcia says while it was tough during that time when FMD broke out, it was tougher to know that your people or at least half of your workers would not be able to provide for their families.
“That made me realize, by heart, the purpose why Tatang called on us to continue the business they started and nurtured us, fed us and provided for us until we studied in college. Imagine, at that time, my parents’ salary as school teachers were only P200 per month for each of them. When I was studying in Manila, I needed to pay for my dormitory that was P200 per month, just about the salary of my father. Our small business of poultry and egg production provided for our education. My parents also butchered pigs on weekends and loaned people pork that they would pay the next payday,” says Garcia.
Garcia recalls that as young student, he was helping his parents in their backyard business by waking up 4 in the morning to prepare and deliver eggs to the market before going to school.
Hard work
“This is the same dedication and hard work we have for our company. Me and my brothers have cultivated the same level of dedication to our people in what we call ‘family-oriented’ business. Ours is a system that involves the family of our workers. We share the blessing, we do corporate social activities for those outside the organization. We are open to the family members of workers who want to be part of the business,” he says.
In 1986, the Garcia siblings incorporated Mekeni with P5 million capital. Today, the company is worth over P800 million with annual sales of not less than P1.2 billion. It employs about 1,300 people from Pampanga to Laguna.
What used to be a small backyard business started by their parents in the early 1970s is now a major competitor in the food processing sector with global presence in major markets.
Tatang Feliz remains the Garcia family’s strong-willed patriarch while Imang Idang, the matriarch passed away eight years ago, the same year Garcia’s first and only child was born.
The Garcia brothers still consult their father when there are major decisions to be made. Lito, the eldest, is the company vice president for finance and administration; Adrian, the third, controls supply chain management as vice president; Nardo, is the vice president for marketing and sales; and Doods is the vice president for manufacturing.
Keeping in shape, Garcia never fails to do his morning jog with his favorite canines. He previously owned and trained 14 dogs but now keeps only four.
Garcia says he is happy with what the world has offered his family and is prepared to confront the challenges ahead.
“My father used to tell us and I remember it quite well. Real happiness is when you share a big portion of your life. What you enjoy you enjoy because you share something in excess,” says Garcia.