Dr. Rolando Hortaleza: From Acetone Beginnings

Dr. Rolando Hortaleza: From Acetone Beginnings

People Asia Magazine 03/09/2006

Nothing can be truer than this aphorism: A drop, no matter how small, always makes a splash.

In 1985, Dr. Rolando Hortaleza, who was earning P7,000 a month from a government hospital in Tondo, Manila, decided to let go of his stethoscope to become an entrepreneur. His decision was borne out of his desire to provide better for his growing family. He never knew that he was in for an uphill battle when he decided to choose amber bottles, which he filled with acetone and cuticle remover. With simple hard work, which he consciously coupled with discipline and dedication, he proved that he could break the glass ceiling and become a purveyor of personal care products in the country.

This is the success story of Splash, a multi-billion peso cosmetics company that processes and distributes soap, lotion and exfoliating products like Extraderm, Skin White, Maxipeel and Biolink. His latest product to hit the market is flavored virgin coconut oil. Though it is not yet available all over the country, Hortaleza is happy with the overwhelming response of the consumers to his new products. He intends to introduce his virgin coconut oil products in the international market soon. More than anything else, Hortaleza stresses, Splash is a story of hope, a story of human survival and triumph.

"We started the business with a paltry capital of P12,000," he says, adding that the startup capital he used in the business came from the total cash gifts he and his wife Rosalinda, also a doctor, received as their wedding presents from friends and relatives. With this total amount, he ventured into repackaging acetone and cuticle remover after he paid P5,000 to his cousin in exchange for a special formula for these personal care products.

With the help of his wife and an all-around assistant, Hortaleza started his backyard industry in his 25 square-meter apartment on Hippodromo Street in Sta. Mesa, Manila.

"Our production standard was not in any way high tech. It was very crude," recalls Hortaleza. Cuticle remover, for example, was manufactured using tablespoons for measuring the solution. A tabo (water dipper) was used to transfer acetone from a drum to small amber bottles, which were actually discarded cough syrup bottles that they bought from many a magbobote (junk dealer). Many times, too, Hortaleza and his assistant would suck the liquid formula from the drum using a rubber tube and quickly pour it into rows and rows of bottles that had been previously cleaned.

"There were times when I would accidentally ingest acetone as I siphoned it from the drum to the bottles," Hortaleza remembers as he shakes his head in disbelief at what he had to go through in those trying times.

When all the little bottles were filled, Hortaleza would bring them to product dealers in Divisoria using his Harabas, a locally assembled utility van. He would always be asked by dealers to leave his products while they were tossing his price list aside. Even if she was heavy with their first child, his wife peddled the products to different shops in Manila and, as in the case of her husband, she had to stand in front of the stores not really sure whether she would make a sale. But the couple had indomitable spirits. With fortitude and perseverance, they were able to make more than P100,000 in the first year of operation. The initial earnings may have been small, but it was a triumph nonetheless for the couple, especially in those days when the economic condition in the country was much affected by martial rule.

It was in 1987, when business in the country seemed profitable under the new Aquino-transition, that Hortaleza made it big. Because big hairstyles were the fad then, he introduced hairspray in bottles, not in aerosol cans. It was such a hit that customers went gaga over transferring their bottled spray to empty squeeze-spray containers. In the words of Hortaleza, Splash hair spray was able to bridge the gap between beauty and budget. As many a woman used Hortaleza's hair spray, he stumbled upon a spray of luck as he earned hip first P1 million in sales that year.

It was only in 1993 that their technology became sophisticated. Their factory now sits on two hectares of land in Valenzuela. Hortaleza even changed the name of his company - from Hortaleza Cosmetics in 1986, it was renamed Splash Cosmetics in 1987, then Splash Manufacturing Corp. in 1991, until it became Splash Corp. in 2001. (Hortaleza named his company Splash because he was inspired by the movie starring Darryl Hannah, where she portrayed a mermaid. More than that, he says Splash connoted "refreshing, cool, dynamic, freshness" - the basic traits of his products.)

From the P12,000 business venture, Splash is now a multibillion-peso enterprise courtesy of the company's three arms - local distribution and international distribution of Splash and their retailing stores called HBC. Hortaleza says their revenue for 2005 increased by 15 percent. From three workers that's him, his wife and an all-around assistant (who has already left the company to start his own business courtesy of the Hortaleza couple) - the company now has 1,600 employees and 40 Indonesians who are employed in Hortaleza's factory in Jakarta. Hortaleza also exports his products to Malaysia, Vietnam and other countries in the Middle East.

"Before, I couldn't hire new graduates because they wanted to go to big, multinational companies," says Hortaleza, a TOYM awardee for Entrepreneurship in 1999. Without a single college graduate applying for a job for his company, he simply filled his workforce with warm bodies. "I just hired people who knew how to use the lowly non-scientific calculator." But he did just not employ them based on that qualification alone. He hired them for their passion, dedication and determination to be part of the company. Those he hired at the onset of his venture who are still with Splash enjoy benefits like housing provided by the company. Those who left happily went away with capital from Hortaleza to start their own businesses.

"You can buy technology. You can build structures. But you cannot buy passion and loyalty," says Hortaleza, who maintains good rapport with his employees by breaking bread with them, playing basketball with them or simply talking to them about anything under the sun. Even their three children, Allue, 20; Alfonso, 18; and Alexone, 15, get to interact with their employees occasionally.

Now that Splash is the No. 1 skin care product in the Philippines and No. 6 in the international market, many companies, both local and international, send fillers that they want to buy him out. But he is not selling his company because it is the flagship of the country when it comes to cosmetics products, a domain dominated by North American and European countries.

"I always rally my people behind our corporate cause: "Bagong Pilipino, maka-Pilipino, kayang tumapat sa buong mundo (The new Filipino is for the Filipino, able to face off with the whole world)," he says, emphasizing that Splash is the only local company in a pool of international brand names that has made a dent in the fierce global market.

These days, now that he has made his presence felt in the cosmetics market, Hortaleza says making Splash a bigger and better company is no longer about money.

"It's about bringing pride to the country. Everything we do should make sense in the bigger scheme of things," Hortaleza concludes. - Bum D. Tenorio Jr.

 

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