Eon Group's Felix Tiu: 'Don't work for money, let money work for you'

MANILA, Philippines - He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and attended one of the elite private schools in Iloilo, but Felix Tiu dropped out of high school in his junior year to help his father with the family business. As a high school dropout, the odds to succeed were against him.

But this was not to be. In 1985, Tiu gathered his savings and started his own trading company with a modest startup capital of P10,000. At that time, he was 30 years old with three young children. The risk of starting a business with a growing family did not overwhelm him.

“I started Gold Star Philippine Traders in the terminal market,” says the very down-to-earth Tiu. “The store rental was P10 a day and I had only one employee. Trading, as a business, doesn’t need big capital — you can buy stocks by consignment. Sales were P10,000 to P15,000 a day, and my profit would be around P500 to P1,000 — that was big money back then.”

Life was his classroom. His skill with numbers and the uncanny ability to identify business opportunities was a gift he did not squander. In 1987, he put up Eon Philippines Industries Corporation. “I invested in candy manufacturing. It was the business of my father and I chose lollipops as our main product because there were few players in the candy industry at that time.”

“The operations were quite primitive then. We had P25,000 as startup capital and six workers. We called it a kawa-kawa and lagare-lagare operation. Everything was done manually, from the cooking to the wrapping process, at a P1,000-a-month rented warehouse,” he reminisces and laughs. Always the forward thinker, he did not concentrate in the Panay area alone. “We are the only manufacturing company from Iloilo that sells outside the Panay region. We penetrated the Visayas and Mindanao area right away to get a bigger share of the market. Now we are nationwide.”

Attuned to his instincts, in 1991, he ventured into lending. “I wanted to give market vendors a chance with their own businesses,” he says. “Vendors,” he shared, “would borrow from loan sharks at 20-percent interest a month. To help them, I charged very minimal interest.” Helping others certainly had its rewards. After five years, Tiu ended up with a very modest lending portfolio.

The intuitive businessman found himself developing a hotel in 2000. The Eon Centennial Plaza Hotel is known as the leading business hotel in the heart of Iloilo city and is a choice venue for corporate seminars to celebrations. “There was a foreclosed property from the lending business and I decided to build a hotel,” he says. “I thought that my return of investment would be quicker than building a commercial center. And it was,” he mused.

He also owns a travel agency, Eon Travel and Tours, and a memorial park on nearby Guimaras Island. What made him decide to go into real estate was not pure profit. The Eon Realty and Development Corporation has built a thousand home units since 2005, making the company one of the top developers in Iloilo.

“Our market is the medium economic families and our projects are not too big or expensive. We are only a pocket developer,” he said. “But we are in a lot of areas so that we can serve more families in Iloilo. There are still some who cannot afford to buy homes.”

To date, the company has five projects: Centennial Villas, Centennial Homes, Ciudad de Iloilo, Gold Land Village, and Centennial Town Homes. Centennial Homes is the first town homes project in Iloilo and was received well by the community. “In one month, we sold everything with only a model home for the buyers to look at,” he said, to his surprise.

Twenty-five years later, Tiu and his Eon Group of Companies are now part of an elite group in the country whose success story contains the universal theme for all men who have mastered the application of thought.

Asked if his ethnicity was responsible for his success, Tiu answers thoughtfully, “I don’t believe that being Chinese means that you are born to be successful. There are so many successful Filipino businessmen. Attitude, hard work and frugality — labor is honor — don’t be afraid to work,” he emphasizes.

Family is very important to Tiu. Despite the long hours at work, there were no sacrifices in the family department. “I always have time for my four children and my wife — I never lose sight of that. I have no regrets about not spending time with them because we are always together. We always talk. Now even my grandchildren are around me all the time,” he smiles.

It’s for this reason that Tiu banks with Plantersbank. Far from being a small and medium enterprise, Tiu wanted to have a partner he could work with and possesses the same values he believes in.

“I started banking with Plantersbank only six years ago. I like the personal relationship that I have with them,” he says. “I met Ambassador Tambunting, who is a very amiable person, when he was here for business. How many chairmen would fly personally to meet with you?”

“They are easy to approach and they treat us like family,” says Tiu. “That’s very important, and they give you royal service.” As a believer in treating his own people fairly, Tiu points out, “With Plantersbank, you are not just a number, you are a name. The bottom line is this: service.”

His business values are the most basic of all tenets. “Simplicity. You should always be humble in everything you do. It comes hand-in-hand with frugality.” After 25 years of working and building the company, his wife finally convinced him to buy an expensive pair of shoes for himself.

Being a simple man has certainly led him to enjoy the best of what life has to offer. Family, the means to sustain oneself and his loved ones, traveling, and doing what he is passionate about are what keeps life interesting for him.

Tiu has proven that a college degree and being born wealthy are not always a guarantee of success. His advice to young entrepreneurs: “Always invest wisely, take calculated risks, have a fallback ready in business, and live within your means. Never put all your eggs in one basket, and don’t work for money, let money work for you.”