Over 70 years ago, Mateo Muela, an entrepreneur originally from Granada, Spain, ran a bakery in Priego de Cordoba, a farming town some 68 km from the city of Cordoba.
He then got into the olive oil business, producing extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) in a mill using traditional cold pressing methods.
In 1958 he expanded the business and began producing quality olive oils. Years after Mateo’s death in 1975, the company became known as Hermanos Muela, and in 1984, the third generation brought production into the 21st century.
Mateo Muela, the first Mateo’s grandson and now export manager, took over the company with his brothers Miguel and Rafael in 1998, and has been to Manila as a guest of Fly Ace Corporation, whose Doña Elena olive oil is made by the Muelas.
Passion
A penchant for the word “passion” is something the Muelas share with their client, the Cochancos, the Chinese-Filipino family behind Fly Ace Corporation. Doña Elena, in fact, is not some Andalusian marquesa, but is actually named after Ellen, Fly Ace president Lucio “Jun” Cochanco Jr.’s older sister.
The five Cochanco siblings work closely together in the food product import and distribution company. Before Fly Ace was established in 1993, however, the Cochancos already had Jolly General Merchandise, named after the three boys Lucio Jr., Louie and Larry, and producer of eponymous canned products, including the best-selling corn and mushroom.
Even before that, in the 1970s, Cochanco’s parents Lucio Sr. and Ederlina Lim ran a trading business that sold imported goods like Pringles potato chips, Del Monte fruit cocktail and Dove soap—until the actual manufacturers of these favorites set up shop in the Philippines.
“That’s when we decided to come up with our own line of products,” recalls Jun Cochanco. Dividing the world among themselves—one sibling covers China, for example, while Jun heads to Europe for the Mediterranean lines—the Cochanco siblings found the best sources of food products. Today, Fly Ace’s mantra remains the same: “Bringing the best of the world to our consumers.”
Although the Cochancos have also brought the company forward by hiring professional managers, Fly Ace remains essentially a family business run on mutual trust by the siblings, and born of a lot of hard work and trial and error, says Jun.
“It’s easy to be passionate when you know your product is a good one. You believe in its value, you support it, market it to Filipinos. And then you watch it grow.” —ALYA B. HONASAN