GOVPH

Life is sweet, but it gets sweeter when you dream, and it is sweetest when you make your dream a reality. For Grace D. Dinglasan, a dedicated single parent, it all started as a prayer. It was so sincere that God listened and rewarded her hard work with bliss.

Ms. Dinglasan took Fine Arts at the College of Holy Spirit and had zero business skills when she started her buy-and-sell business. However, it did not last long so she ventured into another avenue — direct selling —but she had the same frustrating experience in sustaining it. However, she kept on believing that she will soon find a venture in which she will succeed.

While working in Manila, she frequently visited restaurants and bakeshops serving various baked goodies. Fascinated by what she saw and tasted, she finally decided to try something new: homemade sweets.

A cheesy beginning

Her first baked goodies were launched at the Goto Mami Restaurant owned by a relative. On the spot, she just tried a recipe from borrowed eggs, sugar and flour, baked it, then put it on display. Soon the serving dish was empty and people were asking for more. That same day she named her creation “Cheesy Cake”.

So excited was Grace with the turn-out that she tried to replicate what she just did in her own kitchen. Using a borrowed pizza oven, she recreated the cheesy cake she launched at the restaurant. She walked around town with her cheesy cake, then into government offices and schools in San Jose, Occidental Mindoro. Her cake was sold like the proverbial hotcake, making her happy to realize that she has the sweet touch.

But selling cheesy cakes was just a fraction of the job. The real challenge was in making them. Grace at that time was practically on her own, working with the ingredients with just a hand mixer, and baking them on top of a small stove. With only three workers to help her, production capacity was only at 190 to 200 cheesy cake bars per day, and her monthly gross sales was around PhP 19,000 only. Customers with large orders were a sweet pleasure but her limited budget and inadequate equipment made the pleasure somewhat bitter. When she could not meet her customer’s needs, she felt like giving up. Tired and stressed, Grace continued to explore ways to address this problem and pleaded for God’s guidance and strength.

The answer to Grace’s prayers came during the AGBILIWA Provincial Agro-Industrial Trade Fair and Exhibit held at the municipal plaza where she introduced her business as Richbitz Sweets. It was also during this event that Engr. Bobby C. Matira, then PSTD of DOST’s Occidental Mindoro Provincial Office, who was on the lookout for new products, took notice of her tasty cakes. When Engr. Matira introduced to her DOST’s services that could help improve her business, Grace at first could not believe what was happening, but she grabbed the opportunity nevertheless.

Learning along the way

On January 2010, Grace received a golden opportunity when DOST-MIMAROPA gave her a slot among a select group of MSMEs in the region to join the “Experiential Benchmarking Training for MSMEs,” which took them on visits to various food plants in Bago City, Bacolod City, Iloilo City, Guimaras, Tigbauan, Guimbal, Kalibo and Numancia. The exercise was aimed at enhancing over-all performance and productivity of participating MSMEs by instilling best practices and experiential learning on technological, strategic and operational procedures to further stimulate the MSMEs to improve on current standing and market share and to eventually integrate training and benchmarking findings into the MSME workplan.

The activity opened Grace’s eyes on the principles of competitive food processing as she learned from the experiences of other firms, particularly those that specialized in baked goodies like butterscotch, yema, and pastillas.

DOST’s S&T intervention gave Grace more leeway to be more creative and innovative with her products. Apart from the trademark cheesy cake, Richblitz Sweets started making muffins, all-occasion cakes, buko pies, Brazo de Mercedes, banana bread, and cookies. She also included funny and exciting designs, such as flowers and famous cartoon characters such as Angry Birds and Hello Kitty to make her products more appealing.

Richblitz Sweets products initially were packaged in plain grey cartons with cheaply printed labels. There was no sign of sweetness in the functional but doldrum packaging, something that was not appropriate to the yummy pastries contained inside.

Dolce vita, sweet life

Aside from the improvement in product quality and production volume, the attractive packaging of her items made them stand out among the rest. The result of the technology intervention is caramel success — more efficient operations and quicker service, increased income, and additional employment.

From nothing to something, Richblitz Sweets has dripped into people’s taste buds. Currently, the business is even more flourishing because of support from the DOST. Now, the firm’s production average per day is 1,152 cheesy bars. Monthly gross income increased to PhP 150,000 and employment generation doubled from three workers to six.

Grace would always quote, “God is always first before anything else. There are no excuses when it comes to our Lord.” Surely the answer to her prayer is indeed a big success that serves as a topping for a sweet life.