THREE times he went into business and three times he failed. Had he quit, Justin Uy wouldn’t be today’s king of dried mangoes.
As the man who built the Cebu-based Profood International, which exports dried mangoes to over 50 countries in the world, Uy recently shared his story with entrepreneurs who want to learn from him and other mentors about what it takes to succeed.
At 15, he started his own shellcraft business, which he had to close since orders had dropped after six months. At 16, he attempted to go into a poultry business, and at 17, he also tried his luck in growing mushrooms. The other two also closed since these ventures required substantial capital to sustain, something that an entrepreneur who was just starting out couldn’t meet.
The young Uy, one of 10 siblings, tried all these to help his family and his father, whose cigarette distribution business was slowing down, recover and live a better life.
Today, the soft-spoken Uy is one of Cebu’s high-caliber business owners. Last week, he shared his advice with aspiring and small-scale entrepreneurs, including those who have already failed in business but are willing to try again.
Chasing dreams
“Have the will to succeed. There is no excuse,” the 59-year old mango king told around a hundred micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) owners who form part of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Cebu’s Kapatid Mentor Me (KMM) program.
“Things are not easy if you are going to be an entrepreneur. There’s no holiday. But you’ll just have to aim that one day you will succeed,” he continued.
While he grew up with a businessman for a father, Uy did not have it easy in life. Lack of capital, like most entrepreneurs have experienced, caused his second and third businesses to fail. Yet while he had to let go of his unsuccessful ventures, the dream to build his own business remained.
It was in 1978 when he started a business of dried mangoes, inspired by his aunt who used to prepare it for the family, using excess mangoes from nearby farmers who had few buyers. Uy started with seven people who helped him peel mangoes in the kitchen, while his siblings served as dealers of the finished products.
“When you do not have enough money, your only asset is what you can do,” he said.
Without much in his pockets at that time, the businessman recalled how he had to convince the farmers that he would pay them for their fresh mangoes only after 90 days.
Door-to-door
It was when Uy made his first dried mango export to Hong Kong in the 1980s that the business appeared to be on a promising path. Profood continued to flourish several years after, reaching markets in North America, Europe, and the rest of Asia.
Prior to making it big in the export scene, however, the businessman recalled how he literally knocked on the doors of big consumer companies, the likes of Del Monte, so he could provide a toll packing service to them. He was lucky enough to close the deal and eventually do business with other giants like Nestle and Coca-Cola.
“Nothing is impossible. I started with very small, and with whatever I had. Don’t stop growing and never stop learning,” he told the assembled entrepreneurs. As his guiding principles, he leaned on his appreciation for life, time, and family, as well as the value of frugality.
Diversifying
Today, Profood, which has four factories in the country, can process up to six million pieces of mangoes in a day.
Aside from dried mangoes, Uy has expanded into processing fruit juices and concentrates, and has also ventured into property. He owns the JPark Island Resort and Waterpark in Mactan and J Center Mall in Mandaue City.
“I never dreamed of becoming big. I dreamed only of having a business, having a better life for my family. But once you reach another point, don’t stop there because there are more opportunities,” he said.
Uy also shared how he had to get out of his comfort zone. Although he was a shy boy, as a businessman he had to learn how to approach others first, in order to build a network and gain more help.
Having grown Profood into the country’s largest mango processor with 8,000 employees on board, Uy said that capital is no longer a problem. The challenge, however, lies in how to expand the business faster.
The Philippine mango industry, he said, suffers from low output. The businessman, who talked to Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Pinol earlier this month, called for government intervention, especially in research and development as well as attracting more corporate growers, to strengthen local mango production.