Raising a toast to success

Fifth-generation Chinese-Filipino entrepreneur leaves her mark in heady world of distilled spirits with her unique approach

Way back in 1852, setting up a liquor business in the Philippines was no easy task for Chinese immigrant Lim Tua Co.

Today, fifth-generation entrepreneur Olivia Limpe-Aw, the president of Destileria Limtuaco & Co, continues to expand the multi-branded liquor business in the country and overseas. And being a woman in a man's world, in a highly regulated sector, has been a Herculean challenge.

Limpe-Aw says Lim had a family recipe for a pioneering Chinese medicinal wine when he moved to Binondo, Manila.

Though blindsided by a different culture and an unfamiliar business territory, setting up a liquor business seemed the logical step to take. The wine that originally carried the brand name See Hok Tog became popular in the Philippines and eventually came to be known as Sioktong.

The herbal wine is distilled from more than 15 Chinese herbs that collectively promote "the balance of 'yin and yang', the key to good health", says the company website.

Now, more than 160 years later, Destileria Limtuaco produces 30 brands of distilled spirits and alcoholic beverages in the Philippines－from whisky, rum, brandy and gin brands to vodka-based products, flavored spirits and cordials.

According to the Distilled Spirits Association of the Philippines, Destileria Limtuaco is the fourth-biggest liquor brand in the country. The privately held company employs over 250 people in two factories in Quezon City and Bulacan province.

"If you already have generations, then you have the stock knowledge. You just continue, like in my case. The pioneering generation is always the most difficult. You have to set up everything," Limpe-Aw says.

Her father, Julius Limpe, the company's erstwhile president, encouraged her to get into the family business. She remembers doing errands in the factory during summer vacations. The business proved to be her natural environment.

"My parents tried to encourage us to go into the business ... to learn humility, to know that life is not easy, and to realize how difficult life is if you don't have proper education."

After earning a degree in business economics from the University of the Philippines in 1983, she became her father's secretary. The fifth of seven children, all girls, Limpe-Aw learned the ropes of the enterprise－from human resources and production to sales and marketing.

"First, we learn by observing. Then we learn by doing it. But where you really learn the business is when you have to swim on your own," Limpe-Aw says. "And this happened after the labor strike during the peak of labor unrest (in the late 1980s) in the Philippines."

The company's labor union was infiltrated by a militant group and a subsequent strike led to the closure of its factories for six months in 1989. Limpe-Aw recalibrated the strategy of the country's oldest distillery, moving its product portfolio from the mass market, which churns higher sales volume but entails bigger operational and advertising expenses, to the niche midrange market by promoting competitive brands.

"At the time, there was room for mid-range Philippine products as an alternative to expensive imported spirits," she says. "We gave them products of better quality, better packaging and very competitive prices. Better prices meant better profit margins than the mass-market products. And we stayed in this mid-range market."

Limpe-Aw moved up the ladder and in 1991, her father told her to take over the business as executive vice-president.

"When the responsibility is given to you and there is no one to lean on, that is when you learn the most. That is where you knock your brain to solve problems and turn things around. That is when you get to apply whatever you've learned and continue to learn. That is also when you realize that what you've learned is not enough," Limpe-Aw says.