Couple weaves success in 20-year export business
It started as a home-based export business in 1990 with only him, his wife and three assistants as workers.
Two decades later, 33 Point 3 Export has grown from a home-based business into a 5,000 manpower firm with two production facilities in Mandaue City.
The firm also survived one of the strongest typhoons that hit Cebu in 1990 and a fire, which destroyed its manufacturing plant, in 1999.
Through it all, Jennifer Cruz and his wife, Maribel, hang tough and survived the crises.
Cruz said he used his family savings worth P5,000 to start a small business selling woven houseware products, which they based in the family’s rented house in A.C. Cortes Avenue, Mandaue City.
Cruz, who used to work in an export company, decided it was best to invest in an export business since at that time the export industry was booming.
“My wife Maribel and I did everything ourselves then. I was the production manager, the supervisor, worker, runner, messenger, everything. My wife also helped in the marketing side and if I’m out she will take over,” she said.
Cruz and his wife named the company 33 Point 3 Export because he was thirty-three years old then and they have three kids.
“My wife is the ‘point’ because without her I wouldn’t have the three kids,” Cruz said.
The couple started with exporting miniature buri chairs, which were woven by weavers from Inabanga, Bohol.
“That was our signature product then which we marketed in Europe and America,” he said.
But it wasn’t an easy ride for the couples as they had to surpass many trials when they started in the business.
“That year storm Ruping devastated the country affecting Cebu causing us to operate without electricity for a month. We had orders already then and we had a problem with production. Good thing we were able to survive that,” he said.
They then opened their first manufacturing plant along Highway, Mandaue City before the year ended.
“The lot area was 600 square meters but the covered area was only 200 square meters. Orders were also increasing then,” he said.
In 1995, they moved to a bigger plant in Opao, Mandaue City to accommodate more production capacity.
“The move was in time for us because in 1996 we were already starting to offer our Hapaw baskets which was really in demand abroad,” he said.
Cruz said that he discovered the Hapaw weaving in Ilocos when he traveled there.
“I liked the weaving style because it gives a clean and very sturdy finish. The weaving involves use of wicker,” he said.
