By Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman
Once upon a time (2006), in the not-so- faraway land of Makati’s weekend markets, there was an unfamiliar canned product so good that people were willing to buy it in bulk. And then they would buy some more. The news of its goodness passed by word of mouth until it grew bigger and eventually disrupted the market, prompting other local brands to come up with their own special lines. Wrapped in a classic and classy black and white label, it was called Delimondo.
Delimondo, and its famed corned beef, is the brainchild of Katrina Ponce Enrile, the president and chief executive officer of JAKA Investments Corp., which has diverse business interests including food and manufacturing services.
“[The] Delimondo brand started prior to the weekend market, before that, it had no brand,” she told BusinessWorld in an interview on Dec. 5 at the Delimondo Store in Makati.
In 1995, the JAKA group of companies acquired Barney Foods International Inc. and subsequently renamed it as JAKA Food Processing Corp., which produces hotdogs, sausages and other meat specialties. It currently manufactures Delimondo products.
But before Delimondo, “we were supplying corned beef to one of the major suppliers here [in the Philippines]. And then, that’s what I used to can and give as gifts without any logo,” said Ms. Enrile. Soon people started asking her if they could buy some, so she decided to tweak the recipe and put a name on it.
“I couldn’t use that formulation because that formulation is specific to that chain. I changed it. That’s when I started toying with the name and the look,” said Ms. Enrile, who, in between managing Delimondo, also dabbles in cooking and blogging about makeup. She shares a beauty blog (www.themakeupaddicts.com.ph) with her daughter, Kris.
“Because we have a food processing company, we’re doing stuff for other people. I thought why couldn’t we do stuff for ourselves? Before, we used to carry the brand Barney’s when we bought this food manufacturing plant [in 1995]. It wasn’t that popular. I think it’s about time we launch our own,” she said.
THEN CAME DELIMONDO.
A maker of gourmet food and deli meats, with a name which may roughly translate to “delicacies of the world,” Delimondo started out with corned beef and has since added sausages and sauces, pâtés, oils, and dips to its roster of products. Aside from the corned beef, its other bestsellers are chili oil and luncheon meat. The beef it uses comes from Brazil, and the rest of the ingredients come from the Philippines.
“I really like to eat and I know how to cook so you cannot fool me when it comes to [taste]. I have a very sharp palette so I can tell what’s in it,” said the 56-year-old only daughter of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile.
She said she can tell if it is Delimondo corned beef in front of her just by looking at it. Her daughter, Karina, JAKA Investments Corp. vice-president, broke in and said: “We tried replicating the corned beef, she knew right away that it was different.
“The kids don’t know [the recipe], it’s in my tongue,” said Ms. Enrile, smiling.
The formula is a trade secret that she has long kept to herself. She has not written it down in her diary nor has she ever told it to somebody. She said: “My children will eventually know that when they reach to the point of looking and smelling alone.”
While can be eaten straight from the can, the famed corned beef, according to its own creator, is best when “you sauté it with garlic and onion” or crisped up with vinegar added like adobo.
DISRUPTING THE MARKET
Delimondo may be very well living up to its name. Mondo, according to Google, is a word of Italian origin that is “used in reference to something very striking or remarkable of its kind.” And this is what it did when it started to gain following and soon shook up the canned meat market.
“[S]ales have grown exponentially, especially since the last five years,” said Juan Rodrigo Ponce Enrile, JAKA Investments Corp. senior executive vice-president for manufacturing and distribution.
While the products are only available in Metro Manila (at least for now), Delimondo’s success has pressured its bigger competitors, which have wider market reach, to come up with their own special lines in the hopes of rivalling the new corned beef.
“When we entered the market before, we were seen as an imported brand because of the price,” said Mr. Enrile. A 260-gram can of Ranch-style corned beef is priced at P113 while the garlic and chili flavor version costs P118.
“But because bumenta si Delimondo (since Delimondo sells), a lot of the local brands started coming up with premium brands. Highlands came up with the prices and Purefoods has a variant even more expensive than ours. Now they’re catching up with the pricing,” he said.
But the road to Delimondo’s success was not smoothly paved. Some people even thought it was a dog food at first.
“Or something like that,” said Ms. Enrile while laughing, “but I said ‘No, I still wanted it white,” referring to the products’s extremely simple label.
“If all the grocery shelves were colorful, what would stand out? You know right away that, ‘Oops, that’s Delimondo.’ I wanted it very clean, simple, and let the product speaks for itself. No frills,” she said.
‘CREATIVE, CONSCIENTIOUS, AND DISAGREEABLE’
From weekend markets, Delimondo’s products are now available at select supermarkets and outlets in Metro Manila. “It took us a while,” said Ms. Enrile, about her products’ journey. “Considering that we’re the little boys, we don’t have the budget like the others.”
And even though Delimondo has no plans of exporting just yet, its products have already made it overseas, thanks to fans who bring the canned goods abroad. The Enriles said there was even an auction abroad for Delimondo products.
Word of mouth has been their biggest marketing ally. “I am not saying it’s a trustworthy marketing strategy. What I am saying is it just so happened that is what we did and it worked. We’re lucky,” she said.
Or perhaps it is not all about luck. Bestselling author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell said there are three things business leaders have in common. They are “creative, conscientious, and disagreeable.”
In his book Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell said market disruptors “are those who have been given opportunities — and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.”
Had the Enriles conformed to the market’s rule that a brand should have eye-catching and brightly colored labels, Delimondo would not have stood out on supermarket shelves. Had they been content with what’s available in the market, Delimondo’s corned beef would never be born. Had they scrimped on the ingredients, it would never have inspired the word of mouth story to begin with.
It’s the belief in the product, “and it’s just purely heart and sweat talking,” added Ms. Enrile.
She said there’s no magic formula, but there is purpose. “It’s experimental, like I said we had the Barney’s brand but it did not take off, even if it was backed up by a food manufacturer. Study this out. For me, whatever the product, even if it’s just tocino (cured meat) or makeup, start first with the core — what is your purpose and goal? — master it, and always go back to it.”
Treat the product like your own child, experience the birth pains, and grow from it, she said.
“If you really like a product, you have to know it very well. There’s a lot of corned beef, but if you can make your product really good, you’re not going to compromise, you are willing to take however long [is needed], that you’ll stick to it no matter what, at masyado kang bilib sa produkto mo (you really believe in your product), then you have a chance,” she said.
Some do it for the “quick money,” she said as she snapped her fingers — the very same hands that crafted a corned beef originally meant as a gift — but “you got to love your products first because who else will?”
