By: Bettina
Oprah has her own green-colored, four-piece chair set displayed at her California tea house. Celine Dion has the famous Malabar chair in her living room. Ralph Lauren boasts of owning an exclusively-designed Palembang urn (a huge egg-shaped metal frame with wicker weave) and trays with leather tags.
In its own quiet way, Pampanga-based furniture manufacturer Calfurn has been creating waves in the global arena, cementing the Philippines’ reputation as a source of world-class furniture.For more than three decades, Calfurn has been creating furniture featured in foreign department stores like Bloomingdales, Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Harrods. Now Calfurn is all set to take the local market by storm.
“It’s time to show our fellow Filipinos what Calfurn has to offer,” says Eredito ‘Erdy’ Feliciano, chairman of the board of Calfurn Manufacturing Philippines, Inc.
The roots
It took all of P30,500 for Erdy Feliciano and his business partner Angelo Baltazar, to get the fledging company off the ground in 1976.
‘‘At the time, we had a lot of competitors,’’ Feliciano recalls. “We managed to outlast them all.’’
Feliciano attributes the company’s success to “a lot of good luck and good timing.’’ Of course, it also helped that the company’s leaders stayed focused and on target, determined to succeed at all cost. It was determination born out of true grit.
As a man who worked to pay his way through college, Feliciano is not a stranger to hard work. Orphaned by his father at an early age, Feliciano took up the burden of breadwinner to his mother and eight siblings, working several jobs (including that of jeepney driver) to put food on the table. At the same time he studied hard to earn his accountancy degree and eventually became a certified public accountant. Keenly aware of whence he came, he instills the philosophy of Calfurn in his employees, treating them as his partners instead of workers.
On the other hand, it is up to Baltazar, the company’s president, to keep creativity flowing in the company. A graduate of Bachelor of Science in Commerce-Major in Accounting at the Holy Angel College in Angeles City, takes care of research and development. With such an innate inventive streak, Baltazar is the man behind the imaginative and inventive designs that can be seen in the products that Calfurn is able to produce.
The rollercoaster ride to success
The beginning of their success in exporting started with colored woven baskets back in 1983. At that time, there were only a few color choices being offered. But Calfurn opted to experiment and offer something new to the market—colored baskets. “We played with different colors that were eventually accepted by the market. Tinanggap talaga yun during those times,” Erdy shares.
Then in 1986, they got their big break with the creation of their Abacca Blue Rose furniture collection. With this, they were able to offer something entirely new to furniture, ranging from end tables, coffee chairs and rockers. This collection was first bought by Bloomingdales and Macy’s then eventually, all else followed.
The company, however, suffered a setback in 1991, when the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo damaged their factory. “Marami ang nawala sa amin noon, but it only took us around a month to do all the necessary repairs. In about three month’s time, we were back in business.”
More recently, another dilemma hit the company due to the economic recession. From having almost 8,000 workers at its peak, “we had to break it down and lay off more than half of the original number of workers we had,” says Feliciano.Feliciano believes that Filipinos have always had the potential to go global. “Magaling ang mga Pinoy. Our strength is in weaving. When it comes to craftsmanship—what Italy is to Europe, while Philippines is to Asia,” he stresses. He says that with every Calfurn product, the customer is certain to get nothing less than world-class quality and style that’s definitely worth its tag price.
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