The Bread Winner
The Laguna-based bakery of this young entrepreneur is making customers’ lips smack with its yummy ensaymada. A secret recipe and total commitment to quality are the ingredients for success.
“You need to think of ways to make sure that you don’t rely solely on anyone for your business. If you lose people, work by yourself. If you lose capital, work again...”
A wealth of success stories trace their origins to Metro Manila, but in Laguna province, there is a thriving bakery that has experienced robust growth despite the pandemic.
ST Lucido bakery, famous for ensaymada (Filipino-style brioche), has been performing beyond the wildest dreams of its owner Shereenel “She” T. Lucido.
Hard worker
She grew up under challenging circumstances in the pilgrimage town of Manaoag in Pangasinan province with her mother Emelita and her grandparents. She explains: “My father Arnel worked in Manila and my parents could not afford to rent a house to raise their five children. I went to grade school and high school in the province, but when it was time for me to go to college, I asked my father if I could go and live with him.”
She left Pangasinan and stayed with her father and aunt in Biñan City, Laguna, enrolling in an accountancy course at the San Pedro College of Business Administration. Even then, she encountered obstacles. “My father lost his job at the time, and so I had to work as a student assistant while attending classes,” she says. “It was hard because you needed to maintain your grade, plus work for four hours in the accounting office. Since I was living with my aunt, I also needed to help with the housework.”
The plucky youngster, however, accepted the long hours, recalling times in Manaoag when, together with her best friend Jacky Wong, she would clean the house or do the laundry of a teacher. She says: “Even at a young age, I always wanted to have my own money. There was that time when we washed curtains that were quite heavy, just to earn five pesos!”
Another money-making opportunity she engaged in was to sell foodstuffs. “My classmates already knew me to be a tindera (seller). When classes ended, I would go home and sell things like ice candy or banana cue (sweet fried banana on skewers), which my mother also sold. At night, she visited funeral wakes to offer balut (fertilized egg embryo boiled and eaten from the shell).
She reveals that her dream job was to work in a bank, hence her accountancy course. Her early jobs included working at the San Pedro, Laguna Municipal Hall and at a call center for a few years before she got pregnant. Eventually, she heeded the call of entrepreneurship.
ST Lucido Bakery was launched in 2011, an idea that sprung from a bakers’ training course in Iligan City, Misamis Oriental province that she attended with her brother Ahrem. Their aunt, Sally Ganto, who was a Pilmico Foods Corp. flour distributor in Laguna, sponsored them. “There, I met our first baker,” She recalls. “I went for the training because I wanted to be a flour distributor too, but talking to him convinced me to go into the bakery business. When we returned home, I spoke to my husband Ace about it, and he started canvassing for equipment, and we ‘imported’ our baker and his assistant from Iligan.” She also discovered a shop in San Pedro that once housed a bakery and conveniently had living quarters on the second floor.
Her first challenge was to find customers. “I would plead with store owners and teachers to try my baked goods, even offering them commercial bread on consignment basis.” Their siopao (steamed buns with filling), which they sold at P18 each, proved to be a bestseller. In a year’s time, she was able to save enough to incorporate a sari-sari store in the bakery, as well as branch out to Sta. Rosa City in 2017, and then Biñan in 2019, all in the Laguna area.
Sadly, the expansion hit some major snags. She recounts: “By the time we set up the second branch, the owner of the first branch decided to sell the property, which left us with one branch again. The same thing happened to that second branch as the building got sold off too, leaving us with the Biñan outlet.”
On top of that, the head baker she hired before the pandemic left after the lockdowns, and eventually the store had to fold. She, however, refused to quit. “I could not give up because I had nine employees living with me,” she says. “I had to support their food and needs, and every day I worried about where to get our funds. I did not want to depend on my husband’s salary as an engineer at Japan Gas Corp. Philippines.”
This was when various skills picked up at workshops of food experts Heny Sison and Tony and Marlon Dazo came to the rescue. She says: “I started to bake my special ensaymada and sold it online. At the same time, I asked my friends to try it. Little did I know that this would be the turning point of my bakery — it became the talk of the town. I started to receive more orders, which meant I had to hire additional production staff.
“I am happy that customers are coming to me now, and I no longer need to ask people to try my baked goods.”
Secret recipe
She soon got resellers on board, attracting them, not only with the quality of her products, but also with their affordable prices. She says: “Since I cannot offer other type of breads, aside from ensaymada, I concentrated on producing them in different flavors. I also deliberately kept our prices low, thinking ‘who would buy a P20 ensaymada, if they can already buy half a kilo of rice with the money?’
“Even now, with my upgraded flavors, I keep my prices low, so my resellers in Manila can make a profit even if they spend on shipping fees. My ensaymadas sell at P30 each for plain cheese and P40 for flavoured.”
She opened a new store this month in a good location, along the Platero National Highway in Biñan. “We now have 18 employees and 10 of them are provided with free food and lodging,” she says. “My mom has been very supportive all throughout, and she cooks for them.
Without her, this would not be possible. This is also a family affair. My aunts Mylene Pacis and Dona Barrientos are my assistant and my manager, respectively.”
“It has always been my dream that one day, ST Lucido will be a household brand,” she declares. “I’ve had offers to a franchise, but I guess for now, I will maintain one branch to cater to all. I don’t want to give my recipe out to anyone.”
This mother of two is thankful that her kids appreciate her dedication to the family business. “My two children, 13-yearold Oyo and seven-year-old Uno are smart and very understanding. They are used to my long work hours, but I make sure that my husband and I have dinner with them, and have small talks with them as well. I also make sure that they do their chores around the house.”
As for her me-time, she says with a laugh: “That would be when I take my bath. I even fall asleep holding my phone. I get really tired, but my employees need me.”
She’s journey has been tough indeed, but full of insights. She says: “You need to think of ways to make sure that you don’t rely solely on anyone for your business. If you lose people, work by yourself. If you lose your capital, work again and work harder. In the bakery business, it is hard to get a baker to stay with you for the long term. You should know how to make your product too.”
Her ensaymada may melt in the mouth, but this lady is made of sturdier stuff. She says: “When I was younger, my father had this poster on our wall that said: ‘Act as if it were impossible to fail and it will be.’ This phrase was stuck in my mind for now. Truly, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. Get up and start again.”