Lilith’s Bocarillo: a successful SME story
By Ronald O. Reyes
“Hard-work and patience, not just luck!”
Lilia Gil Oraiz or Mana Lilith summed up the wisdom she learned in nearly three decades since her family first put up the “bocarillo” business in the early 80’s.
Located in Barangay Ibarra, Maasin City, the new and well-designed Lilith’s Bocarillo store now stands as a concrete example how small-medium enterprises (SME’s) in the countryside can also be rewarding and profitable through sheer determination and endless improvement of the product.
With only two workers during its first operation and with an “unbelievable” capital of less than One hundred pesos (P100.00), Lilith’s Bocarillo now thrives and earns the reputation as “one of the fast-growing SME’s” in the city.
A pack of bocarillo is sold at P45.00 (big) and P25.00 (small).
To date, Lilith’s Bocarillo has established its market in some key places in the region, Cebu, Davao and Metro Manila.
The delicious “langka” and “buko”
Bocarillo is a home-made sweet delicacy that can be flavored with “langka” (jackfruit) and buko (coconut) and is guaranteed to have no preservatives.
Its procedure is so simple and can be done manually. First, the refined sugar is placed in a sauce pan and is heated until it becomes glutinous. Next, the grated meat of young coconut or ripe jackfruit is mixed in the pan and is added with milk until it is cooked. Thereafter, the cooked “bocarillo” is formed into “tiny squares” using a fork.
The bocarillo can also be flavored with durian, pineapple, lemon, and peanuts, if you’ll request.
The successful story
Once considered as inferior business in their village (also due to stiff competition with other home-made products sold in the neighborhood), Lilith’s Bocarillo now becomes the big source of income for the Oraiz family.
Mana Lilith is a plain house wife and bocarillo business has always been her dream so she could also augment the family income to support the studies of their children.
And out of this aspiration and constant innovation to the product’s taste and packaging (also with the constant “challenge” of her husband Mano Gonding to finally come up with the tastiest bocarillo in Maasin), now comes the original bocarillo in Barangay Ibarra whose taste can never be matched.
Mana Lilith revealed that her business started to thrive during the “Kalakalan 2000” highlighted in 1994-1999.
During those years her business got exemption from taxes and other liabilities. Also, her product was constantly supported and monitored by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
However, they also faced some problems on the product’s shelf-life.
The product can only last for around 2 weeks or less than a month—giving them some difficulties in accommodating orders for overseas.
In the end, though others said that her husband got the financial backings to their business being a government worker, Mana Lilith humbly maintains that it is always about their hard-work and patience that brought “luck” to their business.
Good stuff.
Very imformative for me.
successful story indeed…
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