Glutalipo makers Leo Ortiz and Jeff Tan exude ‘beauty of partnership’
TWO heads are better than one, as an old adage says. This holds true in business partnership. Rising Dragon Beauty & Wellness Trading Corp. Founder and CEO Leo Ortiz and Co-owner Jeff Tan are among the success stories of entrepreneurs-in-tandem that have made Glutalipo one of the formidable slimming and whitening brands in the country today. But theirs is a venture formed beyond the usual agreement between two or more individuals to carry on an entity as co-proprietors. They are real life partners.
The former, who is a nursing cum laude graduate, yet unemployed after finishing his studies, ended up selling beauty and wellness products. From joining a marketing group, he established his very own enterprise JLO General Merchandise in 2013 that, eventually, became Rising Dragon in 2017.
Eight months passed by, their paths had crossed when the former met the latter through a dating app. Both coming from a six-year relationship heartbreak, they officially entered into a romantic relationship. Initially, the couple continued with their chosen careers: Ortiz singlehandedly ran his business, as Tan worked as a marketing executive of Bellevue Hotel.
“Leo and I talked that we will never go into business together for fear of fighting. But the pandemic happened. So I had no choice but to go and do business together with him. So that’s the time we collaborated,” he told reporters in a recent interview in their newly built property in Antipolo City.
Describing himself as being “not the business type person,” Tan was thankful and happy that his partner did not think twice to introduce him to his business, which was striving back then.
With his professional background, he is involved into the branding, design and layout of their products, as well as purchasing. Ortiz, on the other hand, is more hands on the marketing side of the business. “It’s a blessing in disguise that it happened because both of our strengths mixed well. Our collaboration made the company better,” Tan said.
Thriving business
AKIN to its namesake mythical creature, Rising Dragon’s ascent was phenomenal as a maverick in detox beverages.
“We started the business with the Glutalipo juice. Later, we introduced the coffee and milk tea counterparts. Then, the rest was history,” Tan recalled.
Growing the business to what it is today is not like a walk in the park, according to the originator. Ortiz conceded that he also had a share of challenges at a start-up phase, especially when it comes to establishing the firm and building its credibility.
“Its hard to introduce a product to the people. So No. 1, of course, is ensuring the quality of the product. Second is raising awareness and marketing. Third, no matter how many competitors you have in the market, don’t look left and right, or be pressured. Focus on growing the business by maintaining quality products, good customer service, and good relationship with distributors and others,” the founder and CEO elaborated.
Doing so has made the Rising Dragon a market leader in direct selling and distribution space.
From its slimming drinks, its line up of products expanded to include skin-care products (serum, lotion, underarm cream and soaps), as well as glutathione and melatonin capsules, etc. mainly targeting the Class B or the working populace.
Upon discovering that there are some who want a cheaper alternative, the company came up with another skincare brand for the mass market—lumina Glow By Beauty Vault.
This is similar but at a lower price than the best-seller Beauty Vault Rejuvenating Set, which contains a Kojic soap, toner, night and morning creams. All these products are produced for Rising Dragon in compounding and toll packing arrangements with their partner with manufacturing plants in Quezon City and Marikina.
Opportunity from crisis
UNLIKE most businesses in the country that were temporarily, if not permanently, shut down during the Covid-19 crisis that hit the country and the rest of the world in early 2020, it boosted up their enterprise to greater heights.
“We are not happy that the pandemic happened. But fortunately, we benefited from it because everybody at home has nothing to do. Everyone is like very stagnant, looking for some ways to slim or tone down. Somehow, it’s a blessing in disguise for us. Our sales increased in the latter part of 2020,” Tan shared.
The health crisis also had the company’s network of distributors and resellers peak to 20,000. Amid the glut of competing brands in its business category, they now count at more or less 5,000.
Good thing their foray into the online trade through social media platforms like Tiktok and Facebook, as well as marketplaces Lazada and Shopee, not to mention their tapping of celebrity endorsers and inf luencers, has Rising Dragon still managed to thrive amid competition.
“We cannot say that our sales is super growing since we’re already way past our peak in the past recent years. But it’s steady that we are aiming to grow this year and next year. Hopefully, double than last year,” Ortiz bared.
Beyond numbers, what’s bringing joy to the LGBTQIA+ couple in so far as their enterprise is concerned are the positive words they receive from the enterprising new generation of millennials they inspire.
“The previous endorsers that we have, for instance, they got inspired with us to the point that when we asked them to renew their contract, they respectfully declined because they have their plans of creating their own brand. We are happy because we also become as evangelists for other people to become businessmen,” Tan said.
Future plans
BULLISH on what lies ahead of their business post-pandemic, Ortiz revealed they plans to stay relevant and on par with others.
“Our short term goal is to maintain our existing users and distributors. Of course, maintain the quality,” he said, referring to products in the pipeline in two to three years time that include a foaming face wash, cosmetics, and health supplements.
“Long-term, hopefully, we can accommodate more and get many people aware of our products and business model and, at the same time, expand abroad,” he added.
In fact, the couple has just gained a new distributorship proposal in Indonesia. Expecting this to be a done deal this year, this will add to their current markets abroad such as the United States, United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. This is a new overseas location for the brand.
“Wherever we go to different places [in these locations abroad], there are Filipino stores that cater Glutalipo. Just like what the marketing campaign that I do says, ‘It’s proudly Filipino for the world,’” Tan emphasized.
Locally, the duo, also intend to create new brands for Watsons and Mercury Drugstores so as the new breeds of Glutalipo will become available to common shelves or over the counter of such pharmacy-cum-convenience stores.
“We’ve been in the online world for like six years or longer. Common Filipinos, their concern is more on skin—pimples, melasma, dark spots remover. So we will heavily invest more on skincare and whitening products because those are the usual concerns of the Asian market,” he said.
What’s more, they want to diversify to other verticals like food and real estate in the next three to five years. Ortiz stressed: “Hopefully, we can venture into these industries in the future.”