From garage business to global store supplier

What started as a “garage” business in 1985 selling locally made fashion accessories has grown into an international export company supplying global retail stores.

Jose R. Soberano III and his wife Marose decided to open a small buy-and-sell business with the help of  relatives in the United States as their direct sales agents.

For their workplace, they used their garage at home in Mountain View, barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City.

“We were just  married at the time. Since we were both more inclined to doing  business, we decided to start small. We chose  fashion accessories because at that time the U.S. market was very attractive,” said Soberano.

They called their business AB Soberano International Corp. and focused on fashion items made of local materials like coconut shells, tree bark and leaves.

From buying finished items, they ventured into making their own pieces. They hired a designer and production crew.

“We started then with eight people  to help us with the business.  We grew to 600 people,” he said.

Being bullish about  the export industry, Soberano and his team decided to be more visible in the market. They started to join local and international trade shows, which paved the way for them to meet more clients.

While they had direct access to the U.S market through  relatives, they thought of stepping up their own marketing to open a bigger door of opportunity for their brand.

True enough, they met scouts from Marks & Spencer, Espera and retail giant Walmart and more.

Five years later, they ventured into manufacturing home accessories and souvenir items which were in demand by  customers abroad.

The size of operations outgrew the house garage.  In in 2004, they bought a property along Salvador Extension in Labangon, Cebu City which now houses a production plant and showrooms  as well as office space for their other businesses in real estate and manpower recruitment.

While business has been good in the past years, exports slowed down following the 2008 global economic crisis that hit the United States and Europe.

The couple  refused to give up .  Top cope, they  put in place measures to keep the business running even with lower orders.  Personnel  operated on shifts to minimize laying off workers.

“We used to have  about 600 people, now we’re down  to about 300 people for the production because of lower orders. Some of them operate on shifting hours. That’s our way of mitigating the situation  and ensuring that they still earn a living and put food on the table,” said Soberano.

While their main market is in the U.S. and Europe, they don’t rely solely on these areas.

“We are not totally dependent on these markets. We also have clients in  Japan, Australia, some parts of South America, Maldives and other countries,” said Soberano.

Despite the present difficulties, Soberano said they want to be ready when  the export industry does a full rebound.

New opportunities  opened for them lately after some exporters closed shop, driving  clients to look for other suppliers

“The market is also telling us that the trend in indigenous and organic materials in fashion accessories will be coming back and we are very  ready for that. That has  been our niche.  We’ve  always been known for that,” Soberano said.

In the next five years, the company aims to  focus on the mid-market, a segment projected by many economists to be the segment to expand in the coming years.

“That again is our niche. We have always been serving  the mid- market so we are positioning ourselves to be ready for that,” said Soberano.