ABCD Organics, a local brand offering pure, organic, therapeutic-grade essential and carrier oils, aims to alleviate the internal worries of its customers with spa-inspired calming, lush, and earthy scents.
Together with LOCAD, a fulfillment expert, ABCD Organics delivers ease and comfort to stressed hardworking Filipinos by directly bringing these oils right to customers’ doorsteps.
ABCD Organics CEO Neil Bernardo first turned to essential oils after suffering from severe acne problems. He found that tamanu oil can help alleviate skin conditions.
His personal success story of clearing his acne, along with what he discovered was a lack of essential oil industries in the country, persuaded him to kickstart his business.
ABCD Organics started as a homegrown business where Bernardo and his mother handled every aspect of the business – from packing and marketing to quality checks.
“My mom did makeshift quality checks that included randomly throwing away boxes to ensure that the packaging is done correctly and not hastily,” he said.
To make the process easier for his mom who had poor eyesight, Bernardo labeled his products in four-letter words along with appropriate colors for each product. This labeling proved effective as his customers could easily identify the products with their four letters and designated color. For instance, oregano essential oil was labeled as “OGNO,” avocado as “AVCD,” and basil as “BASL.”
ABCD Organics started with roughly 25 orders per week. Bernardo’s mother soon tapped other family members to help in the logistics, which they found manageable at that time.
The sweet smell of success finally came when just weeks before the pandemic—ABCD Organics hit 150 to 200 orders per week.
When the lockdowns started, ABCD Organics was included in the list of vendors who were allowed to deliver their products – “essential” oils that qualified as “essential” goods.
As a result of that high volume of orders, the family dynamic of doing fulfillment did not last long, and Bernardo started outsourcing fulfillment to professionals to keep up.
In his search for a fulfillment partner, not many providers returned his call. LOCAD was the exception and partnering with it fueled the company’s further growth. ABCD Organics signed up with LOCAD at the end of 2020 as one of its first clients.
“My sales are picking up because of the partnership. I have more time to focus on handling the marketing side of ABCD Organics because of LOCAD,” Bernardo said.
“Before partnering with LOCAD, my family and I could not go on vacation trips. After employing their services, I can now have more time with them while being able to attend to ABCD Organics’ other aspects,” he added.
In the next few months, Bernardo said he envisions expanding ABCD Organics’ product line by rolling out artisanal bar soaps and linen sprays.