Good morning Gabriel, Tirso, and Román Ripoll. First of all, we would like to know a little bit more about you and the company Tabaqueria de Filipinas
We started in 1993 in a house in Taft Avenue, Manila. We were there until 1996. Before that, I was the director of the company Tabacos de Filipinas for 19 years, and when the company was sold I retired and decided to open my own cigar company. We started with only 10 people and to date, we have more than 500.
The production and sales were growing, which is why we decided to rent a space in Bacoor Cavite. We stayed there until 2004 and then, we moved to our current office here in San Pedro, Laguna. My sons were already working with me at that time, Román is the sales and marketing director and Tirso is the general manager.
We used to joke when being asked which was our position in the company and said we were COO, Child of Owner (laughs).
We decided to move from Bacoor to San Pedró because our phone bills were extremely high because from Bacoor to Manila was considered long distance, plus the traffic was very intense. Every year, we spent half a million pesos on phone bills. Moreover, there were no mobile phones at the time, all the orders were made through a landline, some by fax and very few by email.
So we did some estimation and moved here and build the company here. We were done paying for it in a year.
When it comes to working together, we make all decisions together the three of us.
We are the only authentic tobacco company in the Philippines because 90% of the tobacco we use is from the Philippines. The process is completely manual, we do not use machines. Apart from the workers, we have a partnership with 50 tobacco farmers in La Union, and we provide them with insecticides, seeds, etc.
I remember when I was 18 years old, my dad took me to see a farm, between two rivers and there, was a farmer standing in front of his house holding a machine gun. When I asked my dad why he had a gun, he told me that inside the house he had the tobacco and he was protecting his “money”.
At the time they were all partisans at the time…
We are so proud that after years working there, the local government has started to invest in cemented roads, schools, markets, churches, etc. There is a whole community around the farms so every time we sell a cigar, we are helping communities in La Union and San Pedro. A lot of people don’t know this…
How has the company’s trajectory changed during the years?
During all these years, clients are almost the same. There have been some minor changes, but from the beginning, we’ve been working with the biggest companies, they have been loyal to us and we have been loyal to them. We have been always increasing the business.
Usually, we prefer to work with people in the long run, establishing a personal relationship with them so that when they grow, we grow with them.
And, what kinds of tobacco do you have?
We are one of the few with 90% with Filipino product, even some varieties are 100%.
Also, what we do is to control the growth of the plans to guarantee quality.
This allows us to have varieties of tobacco that no one else has.
We have the “Sarah” variety, who was the wife of Abraham and the mother of the Jews. Also, we have “Genesis”, which is the beginning, and “Habano”. We are pretty romantics with the names.
All the seeds we have are grown by ourselves with the help of an agricultural engineer, master degree holder, and we take care of all the processes. A friend of mine, Javier Plantada, gave me seeds from Cuba that we planted and started to produce what we call “Sarah”, which is a variety of Cuban seed and Isabella seed. All the tobacco is constantly improving thanks to the advice of our agricultural engineer.
Tobacco is: 45 days in seedbeds, 45 days planted, and then 45 days to start to harvest. We are talking of 6 months more or less. After that, fermentation is needed, putting the tobacco leafs one on top of the other, then aging the tobacco for almost 2 years.
There is a lot of competition with cigarettes companies. However, our workers are happy and usually are very loyal to the company.
Do you believe doing business now is easier or harder than when you started?
When we started you could smoke anywhere, now you cannot even smoke in the streets.
When we started in the 90s, exports were tax-free. Now with every move we make we need first permits.
Good thing is we have a lot of experience with permits and burocracy.
We are in the tobacco business, it’s not an isolated case of the Philippines. It’s a global movement.
How has the Filipino consumer changed over the years?
They are the same, and Filipino consumers are more educated. There have been cigars in the Philippines since the galleons arrived from Mexico.
Our prices are very reasonable, especially compares to the rest of the world. However, it is still more expensive than cigarettes and other smoking devices.
In all these years, which is the one thing you’re more proud of?
Having the ability to grow to maintain our values, creating Jobs from more than 500 families and being able to help in the development of the area. All these, without being greedy.
Can you tell us a funny anecdote that happened during all these years in business?
When we were still in Bacoor, and while I was still kind of new in the business I received a call from Benny Fernandez, who was the president of the Chamber at the time. He wanted me to give some craved cigar boxes. In order to do so, he gave me the names and positions of different people, which I wrote down in quotation marks and gave the paper to the craving person. Once the order was completed it was sent straight to the chamber of commerce. Two days later he called me saying “Tirso, you cannot write president in quotation marks…”
This was during the official visit of the president of the Spanish Government, José María Aznar to the Philippines.
And we wrote José María Aznar “President” (laughs)
That is why we always double-check now before sending out the orders.
