Traditional ‘hilot’ triumphs over fancy spas
What started as a key to help his family survive a bankruptcy is now the passport of Maynoll Montalbo, founder and chief executive officer, of the growing local massage firm Mont Albo Wellness Corp., to the world as he stages a strategic plan to make the traditional hilot massage of the Filipinos known globally.
Started in 2007, Mont Albo is a Filipino-themed spa that specializes in hilot, a Filipino traditional massage, and home therapy.
In order to build this now growing local spa brand, Montalbo needed to pawn his expensive watch for R1,500 and borrow money from friends.
That was when he discovered that his family is already experiencing bankruptcy.
“It started after my graduation in med school in 2006 when my family divulged to us that we are already bankrupt. We lost our business. So we lost our home, the bank got it from us. As the eldest, I have no recourse but to help the family. Instead of going to my specialization, I didn’t pursue it,” Montalbo said in an interview with Business Bulletin.
“I have no choice. I had to pawn my watch for R1,500 and I initially started a small soap business. I make the soap, I sell them. It was my routine and after a while, I got an order of 70,000 pieces of soap,” he further shared.
From there, Montalbo put up a small massage place in Washington, Makati called Mont Albo Spa.
Unlike other spas that are copycats of the western, oriental and other Asian massage therapists, Mont Albo capitalizes on what is genuinely traditional Filipino ‘hilot’ that not only set his brand unique but more effective. ‘Hilot’ is not just relaxing but therapeutic.
Mont Albo became an instant hit. Filipinos can relate with it and foreigners love it.
A year after the success of the first Mont Albo, Montalbo opened another one in Makati in 2008. To date, the company already has 40 branches spread out across the country and is expanding further.
The Philippine spa market has been growing since 2011, with the average growth of more than 70 percent.
“And I’d like to believe that we’re already miles away from the competitors,” Montalbo said, adding that eventually, he wants to see a Mont Albo branch in every key municipality in the country.
For this year, the target of the company is to have additional 20 branches, eight of which have already been established.
Bulk of Mont Albo’s presence in the country is through franchising.
He said that in order to get a Mont Albo franchise, an interested investor should have an initial capital investment of R1.5 million.
“That’s an already fully operational spa. The down payment starts at R350,000. The idea is that the franchisee should bring the location to us. Location is one of the main indicators of the success of the business,” Montalbo further said.
Globally, an SRI report, commissioned by the annual Global Spa & Wellness Summit, released a report last year saying that the growing middle class and consumers' evolving attitudes toward health and travel have been fueling the global spa and wellness industry. In 2013, the industry had worth an estimated $3.4 trillion.
This is what Montalbo wants to take advantage of in terms of domestic and global expansion.
"All across the world we have seen, from Asia to Europe to Africa to North America, more and more people are consciously thinking about healthy food, exercising, looking to nature, getting massages and doing yoga," Ophelia Yeung, a senior consultant for SRI International who led the study, said.
According to her, spa treatments and products, alternative and complementary treatments and weightloss programs, once considered beyond the means of many people, are now becoming more mainstream amid the growth of the middle class.
“While medical care treats illness and disease, wellness is focused on prevention through a variety of healthy habits, nutritional eating, exercise and treatments,” a Reuters article showed, citing the same report.
Montalbo is also banking on the Philippine spa market as it gears to become the biggest spa company in the country.
“My objective is really to bring hilot to the world but if that one step, to be the biggest first in the Philippines, why not? We can do that,” he said.
Montalbo has recently joined a panel of ‘Thought Leaders’ in a business forum that tackled the power of transforming small investments into large profits.
He was one of the guests at the Entrepreneur Philippines’ ‘Thought Leaders Live 2015’ recently held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay.
Entrepreneur Philippines, a media platform for entrepreneurial news and insights to start and grow your business, has gathered Manila's foremost thought leaders in the field of entrepreneurship and local business during the forum.
The best insights, stories of success, and fearless forecasts of upcoming business trends were discussed by young and passionate individuals including Montalbo who are passionate about entrepreneurship.
But Montalbo’s plan to his company is not just limited to the Philippine market. Ultimately, he wants to create another Filipino trademark through ‘hilot’ massage.
“Our mission is to bring hilot to the world, our very own traditional massage to every spa in the world. I want to popularize it,” said Montalbo.
He said he wants to see hilot in every spa menu all over the world, a journey that he intends to start in the United States.
Hilot, as defined by the Department of Tourism, is a traditional therapeutic massage performed by an authentic manghihilot while kneading the muscles to remove aches and pains.
Based on the ancient Filipino art of healing by touch, ‘hilot' uses medium to deep pressure and smooth, flowing strokes to restore the body's balance.
The ‘manghihilot’ or the masseur applies coconut oil all over the body, keeping it warm and moisturized for maximum soothing effect.
“It’s part of the Filipino heritage, something that we can be proud of. I want Ellen Degeneres and President Barack Obama to experience our hilot massage,” he said.
In order to do this, he said he may have to form partnerships with international spas where they can add Mont Albo’s hilot brand in their offerings.
Montalbo hopes that the International Spa Association of which he is a member can help him introduce hilot.
Montalbo intends to do this in the span of five short years.
“If my timetable is as fast as five years, the fastest way to do it is form partnerships. Then when I’ve already popularized that brand, maybe that’s when I can start putting up an overseas branch,” he added.
He hopes to initially start his overseas expansion in Hawaii. “I already have a contact there. I am already talking to the Filipino Chamber of Commerce in Hawaii [regarding this venture], I met them last year,” Montalbo said, optimistically.