Carmen’s Best eyes Asian mart LITO GAGNI

PreTTy soon Pinoys accustomed to savoring Carmen’s Best ice cream can taste their favorite dessert when they travel abroad. That will come to fruition soon, according to Francisco “Paco” Magsaysay, with the entry of the Metro Pacific Investment Corp. into the company via a 51 percent buy-in that will give it the financial muscle and logistics to have the product marketed abroad.

Paco Magsaysay bared the envisioned thrust of Carmen’s Best during the inaugural broadcast of “Nego-Show,” a three-times-a-week program offering of DWIZ, part of the Aliw Media Conglomerate, last week where he gamely answered questions on the evolution of Carmen’s Best and bared the personal touch that made it a household name and the secret to its success.

There were at least three takeaways in his interview at the “Nego-Show” last Tuesday that could provide budding entrepreneurs the snippets to guide their own journeys to a successful enterprise. First is to concoct a product, second to know your market, and third to ensure quality. These are the three things that had guided him in successfully shepherding the product that arose from his own fascination with ice cream during his travels.

But that journey towards an ice cream product started when he was consulted by his dad, Sen. Ramon Magsaysay Jr., for the marketing of fresh milk following the latter’s foray into a cattle farm in Bay, Laguna in 2007. Leaving the management of the family’s cable business, Paco was faced with the problem of fresh milk produce that easily spoils given its 7-day shelf life.

He ventured first in marketing the fresh milk but he was faced with a tough selling proposition that made him do research where he discovered that he has two choices: produce cheese or ice cream. The idea for a fresh milk by-product was to extend the shelf life of the fresh milk, much of which is spoiled due to the lack of a market. And as for the two choices it was a no-brainer given his penchant for sampling ice cream when he travels.

So two years after that Bay, Laguna cattle farm venture of his father, Paco put up Carmen’s Best Dairy Products, so named after his unica hija, a fact that provided the push for him to ensure the success of the company even when he had to confront a personal battle against leukemia. He told the “Nego-Show” that knowing that he was given three years to live, he endeavored to do his best to leave behind a legacy, a company named after his only daughter.