The Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2017 has concluded its search for the country’s most inspiring entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines is a program of the SGV Foundation, Inc., with the participation of co-presenters Department of Trade and Industry, the Philippine Business for Social Progress and the Philippine Stock Exchange. In the next few weeks, BusinessWorld will feature each finalist for the Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2017.
Charles Streegan
President and CEO
HCS Management Corporation
WHEN the Philippine furniture industry was at its peak, Charles Streegan, 55, took over his father’s company, Pacific Traders & Manufacturing Corp., which started out as a rattan pole trader.
It has since then grown and evolved into one of the country’s foremost manufacturers of rattan, wood, teak and outdoor furniture.
Under Mr. Streegan’s leadership, Pacific Traders has become a company known for the quality of its products and designs, catering to many of the best global brands, while creating and managing its own furniture lines and brands.
After graduating from De La Salle University with a degree in Marketing Management, Mr. Streegan was sent to the United States to work with one of his father’s clients. However, his father had taken ill and asked his son to return to Cebu to temporarily take over the company.
Mr. Streegan was still young when he took over the business. After his father recuperated, he decided to strike out on his own before eventually returning to lead the family business. In 1997, he became president and chief executive officer.
In the late 1990s, he reorganized the group of companies under one holding company called HCS Management Corp. (HCS), which currently has eight businesses, including the furniture companies Pacific Traders and Manufacturing Corp. and PT Pacific Traders-Indonesia, as well as marketing offices in Dubai and the United States.
For a long time, the Philippine furniture industry was the go-to market for international buyers. It became the center of global rattan furniture manufacturing with exquisite quality products known to the rest of the world.
However, the market became increasingly competitive. This had a big impact on the local furniture industry, including Pacific Traders under the HCS Group.
“Other countries just got better, like Vietnam and Indonesia,” recalls Mr. Streegan.
“They were offering reasonable quality at a lower price.”
A game changer was the depletion of rattan in the Philippine forest. The global economic crisis in the late 2000s also affected the US building and construction industry that was the main market of Cebu’s furniture industry. This had tremendous impact on most of the furniture makers and exporters in Cebu.
Pacific Traders, under the HCS Group, then considered converting its business to a different industry, but Mr. Streegan decided not to do so.
After studying the feasibility of moving overseas, he set up a factory in Indonesia, PT Pacific Furniture – the only Filipino-owned manufacturing facility in the country, where raw materials are abundant and cheaper.
In 2010, the group set up the marketing offices in the United States and Dubai to be closer to its markets.
Mr. Streegan admits some observers viewed his decisions as unorthodox, but they paid off with new markets and the opportunity to manufacture products using new materials, such as teak wood, which is unavailable in the Philippines.
Mr. Streegan also said that customers approach Pacific Traders for its innovative designs and competitive pricing. He narrates that when buyers go to Pacific Traders showrooms, they get to see first-hand the quality of materials used, the company’s design capabilities and its manufacturing facility.
Over the last 44 years, Pacific Traders, under the HCS Group, has maintained a brand and reputation of good quality, design and service.
“In this business, nobody remembers the nine good things you did; they’ll remember your last bad job,” Mr. Streegan noted.
“We have built our reputation and our brand over the years, and now we have a lot of customers who stand by our product.”
The company takes pride in its designs and ability to execute those designs sustains its competitive edge. To maintain this edge the company trains craftsmen in the appropriate artisan skills like weaving and carving.
For Mr. Streegan, technology has had a big impact on marketing efforts. Pacific Traders launched a Google Showroom in the USA. “It’s almost like virtual reality. People can browse through our selection via the Internet without needing to physically travel,” he said.
Simultaneously, the company is also developing a local version for the Google Showroom for the Filipino market. By slowly shifting to virtual space, it is increasing convenience for customers and promoting pricing transparency.
The company’s long-term plan is to continue strengthening its design team. It intends to make its Cebu facility its design and development hub, while using the Indonesian plant for more conventional or traditional furniture manufacturing.
The goal is to be able to manufacture, source and buy from anywhere in Asia.
Mr. Streegan also plans to bring in younger managers to help build a strong, progressive organization.
For its many achievements over the years, Pacific Traders, under the HCS Group, has bagged various awards, including the Philippine Golden Shell Award for Outstanding Performance in Export and the Outstanding Respondent among Large and Medium Firms covered by the Business Expectations Survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
For this entrepreneur, passion is critical to success.
“Do what you like best and never be afraid to fail,” Mr. Streegan said.
“Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. If you don’t make mistakes, then you’re not pushing the boundaries.”
The official airline of the Entrepreneur of the Year Philippines 2017 is Philippine Airlines.
Media sponsors are BusinessWorld and the ABS-CBN News Channel.
Banquet Sponsors are Bench; Bounty Fresh Food, Inc.; CDO Foodsphere; Fiori Di Marghi; Global Ferronickel Holdings, Inc.; Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc.; Intermed Marketing Phils., Inc.; Jollibee Foods Corp.; LBC; SteelAsia and Universal Harvester, Inc.
The winners of the Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines 2017 will be announced in an Oct. 18 awards banquet at the Makati Shangri-La Hotel. The Entrepreneur Of The Year Philippines will represent the country in the World Entrepreneur Of The Year 2018 in Monte Carlo, Monaco in June 2018. The Entrepreneur Of The Year program is produced globally by Ernst & Young.
