Romac: Managing business like a family

Sunday, September 25, 2011

ANGELES CITY — The Romac Group of Companies traces its humble beginnings in the 1970s when Renato Romero entertained small-time manpower contracts.

From there, bigger contracts from Pampanga-based companies, including government agencies like the Department of Public Works and Highways poured in to RG Romero Enterprises.

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“It was just a small company then, a single proprietorship run by Rene,” Agnes Macam Romero, wife of the Romac President, shared.

She added that Mr. Romero even engaged in the buy-and-sell business and sold cars, air-conditioners and television sets, among others.

“In the 1980s, the company grew bigger. That’s then when we thought to incorporate our family names,” Mrs. Romero said.

The name Romac was derived from the first syllables of the couple’s family names. The letter M in the middle, as Mr. Romero puts it, means marriage.

In the 1990s, the company was able to expand in Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu, Zamboanga and Davao among others.

Romac also provided services to most locators at the Clark Development Corporation when it boomed in 1997.

Husband and wife tandem

“When I saw the company booming, I asked Mrs. Romero to work full time at the office,” Mr. Romero said.

Mrs. Romero was a full-time wife back then – managing their household and taking care of their children was her main focus.

When she came into the business, they started their food business from chicken toll processing to organic farming to running restaurants.
Mrs. Romero headed the finance department of their businesses.

“I didn’t have a hard time adjusting from handling the family’s finances to the company’s finances. We managed the company the way we managed our family,” she said.

Prudence was Mrs. Romero’s key in keeping their finances intact.
But despite their busy schedules, the Romeros still get to do other things.

Mr. Romero is a known advocate of economic growth for Central Luzon. He is the former president of the Advocacy for the Development of Central Luzon and now sits as the vice chairman of the Pampanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry or PamCham.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Romero still gets the time to pursue a painting career. She paints flowers and other natural creations. She even keeps a garden filled with 1,000 roses.

In the future, the Romero couple said they want their children to take over their family business.

“The business is no longer a business. It became our commitment to help people – thousands of people. To pursue the company means to help the people who have been working with us for a long time,” Mr. Romero said.