"I began supplying juices to the canteen of a MBA classmate which was located in a bank along Ayala Ave. Business was good in the beginning, then slackened after a few months," said Nemeno who decided to stop the business and assess what went wrong. He reopened for business a month later, choosing to supply the canteen of the bank where he worked for closer supervision.
Nememo went full time into the business that was then named RSN Foods (using his initials) after he got married in 1987. "My wife wanted me to quit my job and concentrate on the business. Before agreeing, I got an assurance from my wife that she would be able to support the family in case it didn’t go well," he said.
Nemeno’s wife didn’t have to live up to her promise. Sales from supplying fruit juices to one canteen bankrolled the purchase of more blenders, which were then farmed out to other office as well as school canteens. At the end of Nemeno’s first year as a full-time entrepreneur, he owned 130 blenders, each worth P2,000.
The company’s first five-year loan amounting to P400,000 was acquired from the Technology and Livelihood Resources Corp., which then had Japanese-funded lending programs for urban livelihood and for expansion and modernization.
This was quickly followed in 1991 by a P1.7 million to acquire a blast freezer. "The blast freezer allowed us to produce and preserve bigger volumes of fruit purees needed by Magnolia. We felt the company had finally reached full industrial status," said Nemeno.
A P14 million loan was taken from TLRC in 1995 to build a factory in Pateros. Another P15 million was raised to make the factory environment-friendly and to buy a pasteurizer.
The plant currently operates at one shift or half of its full capacity, dropping further during non-harvest periods of seasonal fruits such as pomelo.
"We are a small player in the export market, which is dominated by multinational companies. We are an equally small player in the local retail market, which is dominated by big companies like San Miguel," said Nemeno. "Our niche is the institutional market. We dominate in the dispenser line, which is prevalent in canteens and fastfood chains. We also supply the puree and frozen fruit requirements of food chains."
Aside from its fruit line, Nutrilicious also produces iced tea.
To widen its market, the company launched early last year a low-priced product line called Koolca. Aimed at schoolchildren, Koolca came in two flavors, Gum Blast and Pomelo Loco, and was priced at P4 a cup. Badly needed nutritional values such as taurine and calcium were added into the drinks.
"Sales of Koolca’s blue gum flavor was so amazing that one multinational softdrinks company launched its own version last November. Another mass-based juice maker came up with its gum flavored tetra juice drink, which are also popular in schools," said Nemeno.
Nutrilicious products are delivered to distributors and dealers either in dispensers or in PET (polyethylene) bottles. Although the juices are passed on to distributors and dealers at a price that allows for a healthy mark up, Nutrilicious sets a retail price ceiling. "Our juices should not be priced so high that they won’t sell anymore in the market," he said.
The company that started with one blender, a pawned one at that, has indeed come a long way.