After starting as a social enterprise, Cagayan de Oro’s upscale furniture maker now has a proper showroom to showcase its beautifully crafted products.
Twin Head Furniture & Home Décor opened its biggest showroom to date on February 12th at the Ground Level, CV Roa Wing of the Ayala Centrio Mall (beside BPI).
It was a significant milestone for owners Engr. Peleberto “Bert” and wife Tess after seventeen years, when they first ventured into furniture making in Camaman-an, after a neighbor’s furniture shop closed down, leaving its workers jobless.
“Since we were constructing our house at that time, we invited their workers to do the carpentry and furniture works of our residence, but then when we considered how this would leave them jobless after they were done, we decided to go into small-scale furniture making with three carpenters to continue providing them with a livelihood,” Bert recalls.
Originally, the couple had an RTW distribution company, Cardinal Gears which specialized in signature items in several boutique sized outlets in the city’s malls. But the stiff competition from other boutiques in the city’s malls and the proliferation of ukay-ukay stores constrained them to focus on furniture making instead.
They opened their first showroom at the 3rd floor of the Ayala Centrio Mall when it first opened its doors in November 9, 2012. Two years later they moved to the 3rd floor Bridgeway of the same mall since it offered greater exposure and foot traffic.
Four years ago (August 22, 2022) , they opened another outlet at the North Wing of the SM CDO Uptown Mall but their latest move to the ground floor of the Ayala Centrio Mall (from the 3rd floor Bridgeway) is their boldest yet, seeking better opportunities presented by the superior location and space which finally afforded customers the chance to view their upscale furniture in their proper perspective.
The furniture business was not really new to Bert when he and Tess ventured into it, since his father was already operating a backyard business making rattan furniture back in their ancestral home in Malitbog, Bukidnon.
However, they chose to focus instead on wooden furniture when they started their furniture making in their residence backyard in 2009 in Barangay Camaman-an.
At present, their operation has a work force of 30-40 workers but when they started they only had 3 carpenters using hand tools and everything was hand-made.
To keep up with the growing demand for their products, the couple invested in machineries and equipment like the CNC (Computer Numerical Control) router machine that automated their wood carving tasks with pre-programmed software, designed to precisely cut, grind and shape intricate designs which increased their production speed, accuracy, and repeatability.
In this they were greatly assisted by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-Misamis Oriental) through its SETUP 4.0 4M (Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program) that also helped them acquire a portable kiln drier for their raw materials, table planer, table saw with molder, jet dust collector, and drill press in 2017.
“We are very grateful to DOST who really helped us acquire our equipment like for instance we now have a kiln drier for which 80% of our products are kiln dried to a moisture content of 14% which is the industry standard. This process kills bukbok (wood-boring beetle), termites and other insects which are present in the raw lumber,” Bert said.
DOST Misamis Oriental Provincial Director Engr. Junelyn Louvena B. Ruiz said the package enabled Twin Head to improve productivity by 152%, design execution become easier and more precise, thanks to the CNC Machine, and the production of kiln dried lumber drastically improved from one month to only 14 days.
Most of their raw materials are sourced from industrial tree plantations around Mindanao.
DOST also deployed consultants under it Manufacturing Productivity Extension Program (MPEX) To ensure further that the machinery and equipment are properly utilized and maximized.
“We also availed of the MPEX consultants who greatly helped us improve our production process with the machines we availed of under SETUP,” Bert noted.
Most of their raw materials are sourced from industrial tree plantations around Mindanao.
In addition to kiln-drying the raw lumber they use for their products, Twin Head also uses Termite Buster, a proprietary chemical formulation they themselves developed in-house, to treat all of their wood products and guarantee they’re pest-free for the next 15 years.
“That separates us from other furniture makers. We don’t just kiln dry, we also treat,” Bert notes.
Named after the Acut family boys, Nicolo and Froilan, Twin Head’s premium quality furniture products have gained the patronage of mostly high end customers from government and business who are repeat buyers and who prefer bespoke items not found in other homes and business establishments.
“Kagay-anon buyers are choosy and willing to spend, no matter if it’s expensive, as long as your workmanship is good, they will like your furniture, and that has been our experience,” Bert disclosed.
“Around 70-80 percent of our furniture products are for custom-made with designs our customers personally specify,” said Nicolo, the eldest of the couple’s two sons who now manages the production and design. Although an international studies graduate, Nicolo chose to take another four year course in interior design at the Philippine School of Interior Design in Taguig City, where furniture design was one of the subjects.
To further emphasize the up market niche of their target market, Twin Head has pointedly labelled their furniture designs after classical names like Alegria, Athena, Cassandra, Glenda, Grace, Alexandros, to mention a few.
As the current Vice President Manufacturing & Industry of Oro Chamber, Bert declared he would like to organize fairs and exhibitions, as well as a sectoral association of furniture makers like the CFIP in Cebu. Although Twin Head hasn’t yet participated in furniture trade fairs and exhibits, they previously joined MSME, builders, and architects’ events such as the Oro Chamber’s Oro Best Expo.
The Oro Best Expo (Cagayan de Oro Business Enterprises, Services, and Trade Exposition) is Northern Mindanao’s longest-running and largest annual trade exhibit, designed to boost economic growth by showcasing top Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), local products, services, and innovations. Organized by the Oro Chamber and the City Government, it serves as a premier venue for regional business networking, and investment promotion.
Queried about the furniture industry’s prospects for the medium term, Bert replied: “As long as the regional economy continues developing, there’s a future for the furniture industry in Northern Mindanao, particularly Cagayan de Oro.”
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