Gold in them pork skins
Chicharon is easily one of the top favorite snack foods, some may even say “ulam,” of the regular Pinoy. It may be controversial for its high cholesterol tag, but this truly Pinoy food remains close to our hearts and is never absent when families or friends gather together. And when it comes to chicharon, the most recognizable brand is easily Lapid’s .
Business & Leisure talked with Mr. Rey Lapid of R. Lapid’s Chicharon & Barbecue who started his chicharon business 43 years ago, way back in 1974. Rey remembers that, as a 12-year old boy, he used to tag along with his father every day to the public market where his dad sold four whole pork carcasses which he himself butchered every day. Most of their customers would buy pork with the skin on, but some clients who ran restaurants and canteens would request that the skin be trimmed off. The discarded pork skins would end up in the trash every day, and the young Rey did not take the waste lightly. He asked his old man why they did not find some use for it like, perhaps, cook them into crunchy chicharon for the family. The old man shrugged this off, saying he could have all the pork skin he wanted.
In the Lapid household of 12 (including the 10 children, Rey being the fifth child), Rey’s father found so much accumulated pork skin in the refrigerator one day that he decided to make chicharon. Rey packed them and brought them to his Dad’s “puesto” in Quinta market in Quiapo the next morning. When he sold all the chicharon down to the last pack before the day ended, he knew he had found a viable business, one that he could call his own, and that was the start of R. Lapid’s Chicharon & Barbecue.
If your business has lasted 43 years and counting, you must be doing something right, but like all businesses, there were stumbling blocks and challenges along the way. He credits his father for the support and encouragement from the very start of his fledgling business. After some time, the older Lapid had entrenched himself in his own business with his Lapid Meat Shop, which to this day is still thriving, he opened a restaurant that sold lechon, and he encouraged the young Rey to build his own business. From his father, he also learned to focus on the business and keep improving his techniques until he got them down to a working system.
From 1974 to the early ’80s, Rey slowly grew his business so that he already had three outlets, but as his business grew, he found it increasingly difficult to source pork skin. He talked with big meat processing plants, but they could not supply him either until one time, a regular customer of his suggested that he consider importing pork skin. Rey had no idea about importing, so the customer volunteered to bring him to South Korea where Rey discovered that there was so much pork skin that was just discarded as trash. With the big volume and good quality of skin, Rey had no more problems with his raw materials. Or so he thought.
Rey continued to expand his business, but he remained fixated on penetrating the big malls with his signature product. As Rey himself narrated, the first mall that he successfully penetrated was the SM chain. He talked to the man in-charge and sold him a novel idea: he would open his own outlet in the mall and on the spot he would pop his chicharon in front of his customers. This was a first and the mall management thought it was a great merchandising idea, so Rey got his space. The first day that he opened his store, Rey’s father was amazed at the long queue of customers waiting to buy their pack of Rey’s chicharon. In three minutes, the popped chicharon was ready for packing, hot and crunchy.
Now, Rey Lapid sources far and wide, and he now imports his animal skin from the United States and parts of Europe, which he says are of much better quality than our local pork skin, lending his chicharon a big edge as far as quality and taste are concerned. He no longer has a problem with his raw materials and has regular shipments of 40-footer containers. Of course, with big volume importations, other new problems present themselves. He needed storage space for all that skin, so his operations now include renting space from cold storage plants. That is progress.
The big challenge that he has not fully met is exporting his cooked chicharon. He has regular distributors who bring his chicharon to other countries, especially those where there is a big concentration of Filipino workers. In Dubai, for instance, there is a store there exclusively for Filipinos and here is where they can freely indulge in their favorite chicharon.
In other Middle Eastern countries like Qatar and Abu Dhabi, Rey says the overseas Filipino workers are his biggest customers. He still does not consider this exporting because his distributors are regarded as among his numerous regular customers because they simply buy in bulk and ship and sell them in their chosen markets. Rey had no part in all the other arrangements after the sale.
As part of the Go Negosyo organization, Rey is now giving back for all his blessings as he shares in mentoring and supporting the micro and small Filipino entrepreneur. The chicharon-maker who once dreamt of becoming a policeman until martial law quashed his dreams, wants to support the local hog makers, but doesn’t quite know how. All he knows is he wants to do his share in inspiring and mentoring the upcoming young entrepreneurs. To this day, Rey conducts his regular taste test on his products, never letting anything go to chance, from the chicharon to the dipping vinegar. He now has another novel idea: a jumbo chicharon that is several feet long. Encased in a clear plastic bag, it looks like a long yellow gown or a large barong that I thought it was when I first saw it! It’s great to bring along to a “salu-salo” or a barkada drinking binge.
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