How Love for His Family Inspired This Father to Start 2 Companies

Achievers Food and Bakery Ingredients Corp. and Dutché Chocolate founder Ricky Valerio shares how his family has been at the center of his entrepreneurial journey. 

Father’s Day itself may be over, but it is never too late to celebrate the fathers who have gone above and beyond for their families. As June comes to a close, The Business Manual shines the spotlight on a father whose love for his family has led him to start and scale two successful businesses. 

For more than 20 years now, Ricky Valerio has been at the forefront of the growth of his two companies, Achievers Food and Bakery Ingredients Corporation and Valmarce Food Marketing Corporation (Dutché Chocolate). As he navigated the ups and downs of his entrepreneurial journey, Valerio kept his focus firmly on the reason for all his hard work—his family. 

In an interview with The Business Manual, the entrepreneur and father shares the story behind both companies and how his family drives him to continue the hard work he’s been putting in for more than two decades. 

Rooted in Family 

Entrepreneurship is something that was instilled in Valerio at an early age, and it is all thanks to his mother. The eldest of five children, Valerio made sure to help his mother even at a young age. 

“As a young boy, I started my entrepreneurial journey helping my mother sell bananacue in our neighborhood. We also had a small store selling meat, fish, and vegetables,” he recalls. “At this age, I learned the basic ins and outs of running a business. I learned to appreciate the value of hard work, but most importantly, I was exposed to the concept of entrepreneurship.” 

While he ended up becoming an employee years later instead of jumping into business straightaway, the lessons he learned while employed became crucial when he was presented with the opportunity to start his own business. 

“There were lots of things I learned as an employee that I applied in my business, like listening to customers and seeing things from their perspective,” he explains. 

Founding Achievers Food and Bakery Ingredients Corporation

In 2000, Valerio put up Achievers Food and Bakery Ingredients Corporation, which offers both locally manufactured and selected imported high quality food ingredients. Catering to industries such as catering and hotels, Achievers’s products have been used to produce a wide variety of breads, cakes, pastries, dimsum and other confectionery.

“When I started the business, there were a lot of small customers that weren’t being catered by large suppliers because they were too focused on larger customers,” he says. “I saw this as an opportunity to help these small, local businesses have access to good quality ingredients with the best possible prices.” 

While seeing the gap in the market encouraged him to start his business, what really motivated Valerio was his family and the desire to be able to provide. 

“Giving my family a better life became my biggest motivation,” he shares. “Even when faced with seemingly impossible situations, the thought of them experiencing what I never had pushed me to do my best.” 

Why Listening Helps 

Starting and scaling a business always comes with challenges. For Valerio, a major challenge for him and Achievers was the limited capital available. 

“We were operating on a razor thin budget,” he recalls. “We had to maximize our resources, reinvest our profits, and limit any unnecessary spending.”

Despite the challenges, Valerio came to realize that what helped his company overcome them and be able to scale and stand out is having a genuine concern for customers. 

“The cornerstone of our company is having a genuine concern for our customers. Everything else springs from that,” he explains. “Listening to them and finding out what they actually need is our simple but most important business principle.”

Founding Valmarce Food Marketing Corporation

Listening proved really useful too when Valerio decided to start a second company with his wife Theresa, which they named Valmarce Food Marketing Corporation. 

“Through talking to customers, we realized that chocolate brands, being a necessary ingredient in baking, were very expensive in the Philippines since most of them were imported,” he explains. “We saw the opportunity to help our customers by supplying them with good quality chocolate products at the best price we could.” 

Known for the products under the Dutché Chocolate brand, such as their cocoa powder and chocolate spread, Valmarce benefited from the wide distribution base Valerio already had thanks to Achievers. 

Balancing Business and Family 

Running one business is difficult on its own, but guiding two companies to success takes the difficulty to a whole new level. Valerio admits that balancing two companies was a very challenging experience, especially when they were both just starting. 

“There were a lot of things that had to be done in both companies that required our full attention,” he explains. “The key to overcoming this problem is hiring competent and committed people. A lot of responsibilities were delegated to them, and they stepped up to the plate.”

More than 20 years since their launch, both companies continue to grow. However, Valerio doesn’t think that there is a secret to the both companies’ success. 

“We believe in doing the best we can consistently, being faithful to our principles, and being grateful to God,” he says. 

Balancing two companies was not the only thing Valerio had to pay attention to. He likewise had to balance being an entrepreneur and a father and husband. This could be easier said than done, but Valerio ensured that he taught his children early on about the value of money and hard work. 

“By God’s grace, they understood that I was working for their future,” he says of his children, Isaac, Jose Vic, Blessie Marie, and Nehemiah. “They grew up with gratitude, and they don’t take things for granted.”

Lessons From a Father 

When asked about what kind of legacy he wants to be known for, Valerio says that he doesn’t “really aspire to be known and have such and such legacy.” 

“At the end of the day, it’s not about me,” he points out. “What I do want is to make the lives of the people I meet better than before I met them. As Etienne de Grellet said, ‘I shall pass this way but once; any good that I can do… let me do it now.’”

However, as a father, there are some lessons that he wants his children to remember now that they have embarked on their own entrepreneurial journey. All four of Valerio’s children are involved in the family business, continuing the hard work and dedication of their parents. Isaac and Blessie also went on to start their own business, Freshly Packaging, which continues to operate after 10 years. 

“One lesson I would want them to remember is to always be grateful,” Valerio says. “Life is very short and there are a lot of things worth more than money.”

“Another is to delay gratification,” he adds. “When business starts to grow, it’s important to have the discipline and self-control to not spend more on ‘nice things.’”

Just as he has done when he started his entrepreneurial journey, family is still at the heart of everything Valerio does. With more than 20 years under his belt for both Achievers and Valmarce, he plans to continue expanding his businesses. However, he plans on delegating more tasks so that he can spend more time with his family. 

Valerio, too, has a piece of advice for parents who are struggling to balance running their businesses with parenthood. 

“Although it’s true that you are working hard for the future of your children, it’s still important to spend quality time with them in the present,” he advises. “Be present when you are around with your children.”

Being present and making the most of time given are also important in business. Valerio reminds, “When at work, make sure you maximize your time by being result-oriented.”