When I asked people on what Vitamin C product they are using, I expected them to answer Enervon-C or Ceelin. But it was surprising when a number of them said FERN-C, a food supplement I’ve never heard before. And I was even more surprised when FERN-C products actually took the place of the Unilab products in provincial store shelves, and are slowly making a name in metropolitan drug stores. Above all, I was greatly surprised that FERN-C was the brainchild of FERN Inc., a relatively new networking corporation that focuses on entrepreneurship and distribution of its vitamin C product.

The Filipino Entrepreneurs and Resources Network, Inc. shares the gift of prosperity and health to every Filipino household through networking, entrepreneurship, and a healthy dose of FERN-style vitamin C. FERN Chairman Rodolfo Santos imparts to us how principles, generosity and creativity brought about an “under-the-radar” success.

As a corporation only versed in entrepreneurship and without a pharmaceutical background, coming up with and distributing a non-acidic vitamin C supplement is no small feat. The appeal and success of the product, how it was conceived, and how it was integrated to suit the corporation’s vision-mission was related to us by Mr. Rodolfo R. Santos, Chairman of the Board. He graduated in Chemical Engineering from the Mapua Institute of Technology; he worked in PLDT and retired as Vice President, and is now currently active in different fields, as Director of Stage Craft Trading Corporation, United Southeast Development Corporation, Centennial Technologies and Marketing Resources Inc., Centegra Technologies Inc (FERN database).

LSEC:Why [sell] FERN-C?
Mr. Santos:When we (the corporation) [first] came in, we said to ourselves “why should we sell apparel?” How often do you find those being sold around here? But there was one item different, and that was vitamin C…sodium ascorbate in canister form. But after opening the canister and exposing it for some time, the sodium ascorbate becomes hard. So we decided in encapsulating it and selling it in that form. Also, we thought that pure ascorbic acid would be, of course, acidic for the stomach, so we chose sodium ascorbate to avoid acidity, because it is alkaline.

LSEC: Sir, when was the FERN started?
Mr. Santos: It was started in 2003. I was retired back then. I cannot stand to be idle, so I took up a few past times, golfing, and even being a driver for my wife (laughs). Then a few of my friends started inviting me to join FERN Inc. I invested in it around October of 2005. Also in that year the venture of selling FERN-C took off.

LSEC: What were the start-up challenges that were present when you started selling the product?
Mr. Santos:First was acceptance. Before you can entice people to become members they should accept the product, so that they would have the passion to market it. I always believed that you should love your calling with passion and pride. Second was advertising. We had no mass advertisements, no Judy Ann Santos to market our product. We used the word-of-mouth strategy to get word of our product around.

LSEC: Can we know what strategies you employed to make your company grow?
Mr. Santos:Mr. Santos: There were a lot of networking groups here, so we thought of doing it (selling the product) in Mindanao. Soon enough even people from Manila heard about the product. And then there was this one good networker, he had some kind of ailment before. He coughs, he can’t sleep, and even after trying all antibiotics he still wasn’t cured. Then someone gave him FERN-C, then after he was able to sleep for 18 hours straight. After his story, people started buying the product from him and he created his own network. It was a marketing strategy; the users themselves market the product.

LSEC: What were the problems encountered midway through the venture?
Mr. Santos:Well, our revenue for the year 2005 was 13 million, then for 2006 220 million. Guess what for 2007? 1 billion pesos. That exponential growth also caused its own problems. There was one point when we ran out of stock [for distribution], and we had to come up with a lot of reasons. Also, it caused jealousy, especially among the networkers. One would look at the other and wonder why he is selling more products than him. And so for us to succeed, we said we need to have discipline and positive attitude. If we don’t have discipline, then we will just bicker and bicker instead of generating income.

LSEC:How many members do you have?
Mr. Santos:Last month (December 2007) we had around 312,000 members. Our objective is to initiate the 1-million membership. More members mean more revenue. You’re not buying vitamin C today to last for a year, but to last for, maybe next week; you take it regularly. And so 30 percent of our income comes from new members, and the 70 percent comes from repeat orders from old members.

LSEC: What is the long-term vision of the company?
Mr. Santos:We don’t stray from our main vision which is to help other people. I like going downstairs of the office building and talking to people, and there are some who would say things like, Boss nakakalakad na’ko. And because we have a good product and a good prospect, it brings me personal satisfaction. Also, the product itself is the service for the people with the benefits it brings to them.

LSEC: Can you say that the success of FERN-C is a networking success?
Mr. Santos:It’s a networking success. But we really need to have the discipline; otherwise we would just be raking the money into our pockets. We tell our members to keep expanding their network.

Featured link: http://fern-c.com/index.php