Family turns mom and pop store to Cebu’s top hardware

It started as a “mom and pop” store founded by three siblings – Co Ti, Co Tiong and Co King Tin – back in 1952 along Manalili street in Cebu City.

Today, Cebu Oversea Group is one of the oldest and most successful home-grown businesses in Cebu which managed to diversify its business with more than two subsidiaries.

It started as a wholesale hardware store that operates as an over-the-counter type of establishment in 1952,  said James Co, chief operations officer of Cebu Home and Builders.

“The store was at the first level of the building and the second level was their home. That’s the typical store back in those days,” said Co.

After two years of operation in Manalili Street, the hardware was then moved to Plaridel Street which now stands as their main office.

Just like all other businesses then, the family experienced the difficulties and the risks of being in business. But when the economy was shaky, the family also found more opportunities for their business to survive.

“In 1983, our Plaridel store caught fire. That was one of the biggest adversities that our family had to face then. That was also about the time when Ninoy Aquino was assassinated,” said Co.

The family managed to move on and learned so many lessons from those challenging times. In 1990,  when the economy was really suffering, the family then decided to strengthen the retail segment of their business.

“We started to push more aggressively for retail as we used to have the industrial business and wholesale trading only,” said Co who was then a young architect.

In 1998, the family members rented a space inside Gaisano Country Mall showcasing their finishing materials to the retail market.

It was also at that time when they saw the need for a more diversified product lineup to offer to the fast growing Cebu market, said Co. In 2002, they then started importing products.

“That was after we studied the market to anticipate the needs of our target customers,” said Co.

They traveled to many places to look at the market and see which products the Cebu market would need or want.

“We went to the US, Germany, China and many other countries. We anticipated the needs of the building industry then so that we will know what is lacking,” said Co.

They believed that because of their move to make products available for the market, the demand was created and the market overwhelmingly accepted and patronized their products.

Eventually, Cebu Home and Builders was created in 2002 to cater specifically to the retail segment of the market and to offer a more “homegrown” feel to their shoppers.

Aside from Cebu Home and Builders, the group also has Oversea Agri Aqua, which is into aquaculture, Living in Style which opened in 2004 and Parkmall which opened its doors to the public four years ago.

“We have three branches for Cebu Home and Builders now and a fourth one will soon open in Consolacion just beside SM Consolacion. We will be opening two more within two years,” said Co.

Co said the family was proud of its achievement with Parkmall.

“This is the first public-private partnership between Mandaue City and a private institution like us and I can say that it was a great success and we are proud to have been part of it,” said Co.

The location of Parkmall used to be a dumpsite but with the mall now operating in the area, traffic is slowly coming in with people now visiting the place.

Co said they were expecting the area to grow more with establishments in the near future.

“One of the keys to a successful business is to make sure that the customers are well taken cared of by your people that is why we hire many people and train them,” said Co.

“We have close to 1,000 people now working for us. We always tell them to take care of the customers because that way the customers will take care of us and we can take care of them. Being in a service-oriented business, you can never go wrong with employing the best customer service,” said Co.

Co said majority of the firm’s revenue were coming from the retail segment although the firm would still cater to major projects in Cebu.

Co said the family was considering the possibility of getting publicly listed.

“The immediate goal is to professionalize the business because we want to strengthen our foundation and make the business more sustainable,” said Co.

Co said they were expecting decent growth this year fueled by the overseas Filipino workers’s remittances, the outsourcing and tourism industries.

“The middle market is picking up and we want to make sure we have the products to cater to their needs,” said Co.

Cebu Oversea Hardware Co., Inc. will celebrate its 50 years this June 12.

According to Co, they will continue their legacy of providing new options for the Cebuano market by introducing new products.

They will also look after the next generation who will take care of the continuity of their business by training them and inculcating in them an appreciation of what their fathers have started and managed to grow all these years.

“We are coming up with a coffee table book to document all our achievements so that the generations after us will know our history and values and will put importance to these efforts we are doing now,” said Co.