Looking back at her humble beginnings, Teresita “Thess” Cordoba, owner of HRTC Food Ventures, used to sell beauty products through direct selling. She also went into selling fruits and vegetables in her barangay usirg her tri-bike as her rolling store.  All these businesses, however,  did not prosper because she allowed her buyers buy her products through credit, which led her to use up her investment in paying for the products that were ordered in advance.  Their family had to shut down their piggery business because no capital was left to continue the business further.  The sales generated from the piggery alsio slowly dissipated. Despite these,  she asked a neighbor who was into peanut butter manufacturing to teach her how to make peanut butter. Through constant practice and experimentation, she finally made her own recipe.

 

Teresita Cordova hails from Canarem, Victoria, Tarlac. She is only a high school graduate.She is  married Henry Cordova, a native of Moncada, Tarlac. They have four (4) children.

 

In 2016, Thess was invited by DTI Tarlac to join in the pilot set of mentees for the KMME program. She was reluctant at first because she was told that she had to commit  12 Thursday-sessions and that absenteeism is not allowed. Notwithstanding this and afraid to be left behind, she finally grabbed the opportunity when she found out that most of Tarlac’s local SMEs will be attending the KMME.

 

Personally, she wanted to achieve self-confidence. Before the KMME program, she lacked faith in herself.  One major challenge that she had to overcome was on how she can present herself to other people.
          
The Kapatid Mentor Me program provided her with a lot of new knowledge. It paved the way for her to understand her business more and  what direction she wants it to go. The most significant learning  she got from the program was on Proper Food Handling, Managing People, and Proper Time Management that include time and Motion Recording and Monitoring.  What was instilled in her mind was to never give up.

 

Her peanut butter business experienced a significant increase in sales. Before KMME, she can only process one sack of peanuts per week. When she became a mentee, she aimed to double her output. At present, she is now processing five (5) sacks per week, an unexpected positive result from what she first aimed to achieve.

 

She was able to develop new markets for her peanut butter business. She found enough motivation to offer her products to local supermarkets in Tarlac. Luckily, she got one of the biggest chains of grocery stores locally, the RCS Stores, which has  branches in Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Bulacan.
   
HRTC Food Ventures is a regular participant in local trade fairs like the Likha Ng Central Luzon, DBTI’s Natural Tarlac Goes To OTOP Makati, Congressional Spouses Trade Fair, Araw ng Lalawigan Trade Fair and DTI’s Diskwento Caravan, among others. She is also a regular participant to several DTI SMERA trainings and seminars.♦