When love and candies meet

Candies and love can be as sweet but they can be sweeter together. This holds true in the case of Santiago and Rose Nierra when their love for candy making turned their love nest into a growing enterprise of producing milk candy and related products. But how did it started? Well, let's find out.

The enterprise name SAN-ROSE Processed Food Products obviously is a mixture of the owners first name. And as candies are bound hard with sugar, SanRose's commitment to pursue the venture is bound with the love and purpose of helping not only themselves but also the community they serve through the people they employ.

This commitment led SanRose to seek assistance from DOST Biliran who in turn enrolled the micro-enterprise under its Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading program (SETUP). The firm later received consultancy support through the MPEX. This year, 2012 a technology acquisition support amounting to Eighty-Five Thousand Pesos (PhP85,000.00) which include improving the packaging system of its products is released to the firm.

Few years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Nierra was suppose to return to Manila to work after a visit to their hometown in Almeria, Biliran. They felt how hard it is in the metropolis with meager income as candy factory worker. Tasked to lead his local church community the couple contemplated on starting a small business instead. Hesitant at first to venture into such a business but after seeing a lot of rural people having no work encouraged them to help. And so armed with enough knowledge on candy making they started very small.

They produced milk candy (yema) initially, hired unemployed women and youth as packers and sell the products to peddlers with motorcycle who in turn distributed the products around Almeria and the neighboring towns. And so San-Rose products became available in stores around the province.

Seeing young people, mostly women with hairnets and aprons, usually inspires rural folk with the thought of having a small candy factory in their remote rural community. This impression is what SANROSE has given to constituents of Brgy. Caucab, Almeria, Biliran about 5 kilometers from Almeria town. The firm generated about four hundred thousand pesos (PhP400,000) worth of products and was able to employ at least 12 workers from the community based on its operation last year.

Mr. Nierra, a local church leader, set a small area near his house as a processing section for milk candy, pastillas, peanut butter, and similar products. With the help of consultants from Naval State University commissioned by DOST's MPEX program, San-Rose was able to improve its processing lay-out as well as the formulation of its candy products.

Micro as it is categorized, the firm strive to increase its production by 20% through the assistance of DOST and other agencies by the coming years.

With the enthusiasm to help and the love and inspiration of family members, the sweetness of San-Rose candy can be an instrument of building a stronger community if properly sustained.

There's future for a roadside bamboo furniture shop

Who would think that a road shoulder in a rural community could be a start of a promising venture?

Ronie Villanueva utilizing a small lot along the Kawayan-Culaba road in  Barangay Bulalacao, Kawayan, Biliran started his small bamboo furniture venture armed with a few thousand pesos, a bunch of willing skilled craftsmen, a backward set of woodworking tools, and an optimistic heart.

And this optimism yielded the support of DOST SET-UP program through a series of consultancy and finally approving a technology acquisition assistance for Ronie Furniture this year 2012 in the amount of PhP 111,000.00.

A security guard turned entrepreneur, Ronie convinced and earned the trust of an unemployed furniture maker from his place and put up a small capital to start the business. The initial arrangement was for him to acquire the materials and sell the finish products, while the partner do the crafting with his family in a makeshift area along the road. This space became their production as well as display area for the products.

Ronie realized that his plan worked well "and it was good," borrowing from the famous lines of Genesis, so he aspired bigger. Hearing about DOST SETUP program, he didn't hesitate to visit the DOST Biliran Provincial office in Naval, Biliran where a collaborative project was hatched.

DOST Biliran facilitated the conduct of technology assessment for Ronie which was then enrolled under the Manufacturing Productivity Expansion Program (MPEX) involving consultants from Naval State University in Naval.

DOST realized that Ronie Furniture's potential could be more harnessed through improving its facilities and so an Innovation Support Project was proposed and technology and equipment need were identified with assistance from the DOST's Forest Products and Natural Resources Research and Development Institute in Los Banos, Laguna through Engr. Vic Revilleza and Ms. Zenaida Reyes.

With the DOST support, soon the ordinary planes and saws used by the workers will be replaced with more efficient cutting, cleaning, and boring tools which will greatly improve the quality of their finished product.

The MPEX consultancy conducted by NSU has earlier created improvement in the lay-out of the production area and the over-all management of the business.