Seaman turns back on sea to helm business
FROM a capital of only P2,000, a Cebu City entrepreneur cooked up a business that has become a nationally-recognized chicharon brand today.
Chilo James Delator, owner of leading chicharon or pork cracklings brand Chilen Chicharon, was awarded by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry recently for his success in building his business for 29 years now.
Delator is a seaman who did not have a business background save for his experience helping his mother run their grocery store on the corner of M. Velez St. and V. Rama Ave. in Cebu, City.
He graduated with a degree in marine transportation from the Cebu Polytechnic School in 1981. But job opportunities after his graduation dried up and it took him nine years to finally work in a vessel.
While waiting for a job opportunity, Delator decided to try getting into business.
Seeing a successful chicharon business operating beside his mother’s grocery store gave him the idea to start a similar business but the owner refused to teach him how to make chicharon.
Help
Determined to learn how they are made, he approached a woman named Puring from Guadalupe, Cebu City, who is the owner of Puring’s Chicharon, one of the leading brands in the 1970s and 1980s. Puring allowed him to observe how they made chicharon and he learned it, practicing at home to perfect his process.
It was also during that time when Fr. Nicolas Batucan, the priest who married him and his wife Helen, handed him P2,000 as assistance to the then jobless Delator.
It took the then-starting entrepreneur six months of practice before he started selling Chilen Chicharon in 1984. Chilen is a combination of the couple’s name Chilo and Helen. They started with one worker producing 20 kilos of pork skin per week using firewood for cooking, a lit candle for sealing the plastic packaging and a rubber stamp for their labels.
When he had the opportunity to work for foreign vessels in 1990, Delator decided to take it with the plan of saving enough to use as capital to improve his business. He started working in 1990 for vessels that went to Asian countries such as Japan,
Singapore, HongKong, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
However, the business did not do as well without him. In 1995, he had to choose between seafaring and Chilen because no one could manage the business because his wife was busy working as a saleslady for a shopping mall in Cebu.
“If I had chosen seafaring, there would be no Chilen Chicharon now,” Delator said in an interview.
He said it was in 1996 when the business started taking off. He credited this with their branding of being the “less-fat, less-cholesterol chicharon.”
Chilen was also the pioneer distributor of chicharon in the leading department stores in Cebu.
Variety
Today, Chilen has grown big. It is now distributing a variety of chicharon products, including pork, chicken, tuna and flavored chicharon in different groceries and supermarkets in Cebu and key cities in the Philippines.
Last month, Delator was awarded as CCCI’s Small Business Entrepreneur of the Year.
Delator said Chilen helps its workers by providing the younger ones the opportunity to study. The company pays for the college tuition of part-time workers as well as food, accommodation, and transportation allowance.
Delator credits his family, hard work, employees and their decision to go into business for the success of Chilen.
“It was a hard start and without them, Chilen would not be here today,” he said.
Seaman turns back on sea to helm business | Sun.Star
murag dako jud kaayo sad ning inspirasyon sa ubang mga seaman nga plano na muretire or moundang og panakay
Para sa mga Seaman - pwede pud any OFW
Originally Posted by fingolfin
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