Engineer makes market niche merging metal, shells, pearls

When you see bold, daring eye-catching iconic pieces of furniture, home and fashion accessories, you can always tell it was made by Bon Ace.

The firm, which carries the brand, however, has come a long way since it started producing small buttons to supply firms making clothes for export in 1993.

Ramir Bonghanoy, Mechanical engineer and Bon Ace owner, used to do metal works in 1993 with his company Machinesystems Corp. known as a major player in the metal industry back then.

Bonghanoy tried to upgrade the industry by trying to produce special steel to build machines but it was a difficult goal to achieve.

Eventually he shifted to  producing buttons made from raw materials found locally.

The shift started his rise in the fashion accessories and furniture industry.

“I was always passionate about using locally available raw materials that’s why we tried the buttons made from shells and were a supplier of major exporters then,” he said.

Bonghanoy only had eight people when he started in 1993 who were his machinists in Machinesystems Corp.

Occupying a 15 square meter office, where he could put up a table to display his buttons, Bonghanoy started Bon Ace Fashion Tools, Inc. which actually stands for “Bonghanoy arts-cum-engineering.”

“It was just a small space along N. Bacalso Avenue which we maximized into an office and a production area,” he said.

In 1995, Bonghanoy and his team were able to participate in their first exposition through a special setup in a  CITEM show in Manila through the help of the Department of Trade and Industry and Cebu FAME Foundation.

“From there I met my international buyers and eventually we started to introduce more products from the small pieces to bigger ones. Until now, we are producing really huge pieces of furnitures and home and fashion accessories,” he said.

Bongahnoy now caters to major high-end brands in fashion like Louis Vuitton, Channel, Ferragamo, Prada and more.

“We started making components for these fashion brands in 1998 which was also about the time when we moved to a bigger space in Bulacao, Pardo to accommodate more production,” he said.

Bonghanoy’s workforce also increased from only eight people to about a hundred. At present he has about 350 people working for him.

Bonghanoy’s brand became known worldwide to have successfully incorporated metal and indigenous raw materials like mother of pearls and other shells.

Bon Ace is also known for their very own style of inlaying which they call the Radica, which he applies in his fashion and home accessory lines.

“This is patented under Bon Ace and it has won us many customers already like Hermes who bought our table and displayed it in one of his anchor stores,” he said.In 2003, Bonghanoy bought his own property in Tungkil, Minglanilla where he now operates his plant and showrooms.

“The whole property measures about 6,500 square meters. The plant allows us to produce bigger pieces now because we have bigger space,” he said.

Bon Ace, which caters to the high-end market, wasn’t even affected by the recent global economic crisis.

“We produce highly customized pieces here for the major brands and our market still continued to purchase novelty good from these brands so we were not really affected by the crisis,” he said.

Bonghanoy said that they will continue to develop more designs for their brand.

“I am now also in the process of creating a whole group of companies that will be engaged in different fields of businesses as well as a foundation,” he said.

Bonghanoy’s eldest son Reimer Jen who finished a degree in Business Management is now helping him out in the business as the marketing manager since 2006.

“My other children are still finishing their degrees and soon they will also be joining me in running the business. For now I’m trying to set up a solid foundation for the company,” Bonghanoy said.

Bonghanoy said he believed that there was still a lot of potential for the whole furniture and home and fashion accessories industry in the country which will be harnessed through daring creativity.

For Bon Ace Fashion and Tools, Inc. they found their niche through successfully incorporating metals and shellcrafts and developing their own inlaying design Radica.