Holiday trimmings

"This Christmas, the décor themes to look for are traditional, Victorian, safari, patriotic (as an offshoot of the Sept. 11 attack on US last year), and ivory and gold," said Flordz Perona, executive vice-president of Legacy Crafts Phils. Corp. Inc.

Legacy Crafts supplies Christmas décor to high-end stores abroad such as Macy’s, Harrods, AMC and Dillard’s.

"A Christmas tree would require $500 worth of trimmings, depending on the height of the tree and the sizes and the number of trimmings used. And this does not yet include the cost of putting on the lights," said Perona.

Serendipity

Legacy Crafts started out as Perona’s hobby. When not busy with a full-time teaching job, she would make crocheted stuffed toys and vests for her children. She sold her first pieces of décor to friends and relatives.

"I started with a few thousand pesos from the family savings," she said of the garage-type operation employing two workers.

The business went a notch higher as a result of a chance meeting Perona had with a missionary who was into quilts. The two women teamed up on a project that provided work for women in depressed areas. Perona handled the teaching and the production side of the business, and her partner handled the marketing of the products in embassy bazaars and inside American military bases.

Three years and 100 people later, Perona left the project to put up Legacy Crafts. Starting out as a subcontractor for an exporter, Legacy eventually directly marketed its products abroad with the entry of Perona’s husband, Arnold, as full-time president (after his early retirement from a drug company). Legacy bagged volume orders by utilizing the buying stations and agents of well-known US and European department stores in the Philippines. Legacy’s first order as a direct exporter was $50,000 worth of Christmas décor from England-based Harrods.

Operations

Legacy’s showroom for buyers and its factory are both located in Marikina.

The factory has a capacity of 30,000 pieces a month, the work of 40 regular staff and over 100 piece rates and contractors. Art techniques used in making the décor range from beadwork to knotting while accessories used range from rayon cords to pearls and rhinestones.

The production lead-time for both export and local orders is 60 to 90 days after receipt of confirmed order while carton work takes another 15 to 30 days from receipt of order.

For exports, Legacy requires a minimum order of $5,000. The quantity per style is negotiable. "In many cases, the order per style is deliberately kept small so that buyers, who pay so much for the trimmings, are assured that they won’t be seeing the same décor in several other homes," said Perona.

For repeat clients, Legacy bends backwards and accepts orders below $5,000. The company, however, includes freight and handling surcharge of $200 per invoice.

About 1% of Legacy’s production is sold locally through the Rustan’s department store chain.

Diversification

To provide year-round employment, Legacy has expanded its product line to include Christmas-inspired tabletop and wall decors, tree skirts and stockings, and decorative throw pillows. It now also accepts volume orders for weddings and other occasions.

In another case of serendipity, a friend sold the Perona couple a whole line of packaging equipment for P150,000. (A brand new line would have cost P15 million). A subsidiary called LCP Cartonworks was put up to handle the packing and shipping carton requirements of Legacy and other small- and medium-sized enterprises in Marikina.

"Before, Christmas decors exporters competed against each other. Now, the industry is harmonizing export orders and shipments to the point of subcontracting each other’s volume orders to ensure prompt delivery for the buyers," said Arnold Perona, a director of the Christmas Décor Producers and Exporters Association of the Philippines.

Like other CDPEAP members, Legacy is doing its share in making Philippine decors globally competitive.