Its HISTORY
Dennis Hernandez worked as a janitor in the mid-’80s. Now, he owns one of the biggest meat processing and distribution companies in Cabanatuan City. Dennis is the president and general manager of Nueva Cabanatuan Meat Products. Its products are sold not only in Nueva Ecija but supplied to big Metro Manila hotels like Manila, Traders, and Shangri-La.
The company sells fresh and processed meat. It is famous for its sausages – longganisa recado (garlic-flavored), hamonado (sweet), skinless, and batutay (beef).
It took a while for Hernandez to realize that he was meant for the food business.
From 1984 to 1990, he worked as a janitor at the Philippine National Bank (PNB) branch in Cabanatuan City.
He took up management in college but he had to quit on his third year to support his family.
He met his wife, Susan, at the bank when she was doing her on-the-job-training.
After they got married in 1988, Dennis tried several jobs and businesses. It was in 1998 when Susan’s mother, Nene, gave them a stall at Cabanatuan’s central market to sell home-made longganisa. Nene has been selling the product since the ’70s.
When the couple started, they produced 50 kilos of longganisa a day.
The chance to expand came when Leticia Uy, owner of NE Malls and Restaurants in Cabanatuan City, got the company as a supplier of different meat products, including longganisa.
As more people got to taste the products, the company received more orders from different customers and institutions.
Today, orders for longganisa have reached an average of 1,000 kilos a day.
Including other meat products, the company supplies a total of 3,000 kilos of pork and beef items to different customers daily.
The longganisa has a retail price of P195 a kilo.
“When we started, it was only my wife and I who sold and distributed the products. I borrowed a jeep from my mother-in-law to be able to deliver the orders,” Hernandez said.
“Now, we have 120 employees,” he said.
The couple used to make the longganisa in their stall at the public market.
As business improved, production was moved to the back of their home. They then rented a lot next to their house so that more space could be utilized for production.
Finally, the couple was able to put up a production facility with a lot area of 1,600 square meters.
“Eventually, we were also able to buy the lot next to our home, which we used to rent for the processing of our meat products,” Hernandez said, adding that his family is now putting up another house on the said lot.
As part of the company’s expansion plans, Dennis has also put up a food cart business that sells longga-burgers and others like siomai, hotdog, and barbeque.
The food carts are currently company-owned, but Dennis said that he is looking at the possibility of making the carts available for franchise should the concept prove to be a success in the future.
