Antonio Gerardo Z. Abellar
Chief Finance Officer
J.P. Marzan Project Ventures, Inc.     By BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT With the massive infrastructure build-up by the government, logistics firms are benefiting from new and additional businesses as they partake in niche services their company can offer. J.P. Marzan Project Ventures Inc. is making its mark as one of the country’s major logistics companies. Company CFO ANTONIO GERARDO Z. ABELLAR does not only ensure the financial health of this growing company but helps in further professionalizing J.P. Marzan to fulfill its mission of contributing to nation building. THE COMPANY Actually J.P. Marzan is not just a logistics company, it has diversified into other businesses, but logistics accounts for 80 percent of its total organization. J.P. Marzan is a spin off company of R.V. Marzan in 2017 by Jesus Mari Punzalan Marzan, the eldest son of Ramon Marzan, founder of R.V. Marzan that was founded in 1973 as a customs broker operating in the port area. Three years after its establishment, J.P. Marzan has grown into a big logistics firm offering different industries with fast and quality service. It helps companies deliver their goods and their business needs especially, heavy equipment. It offers heavy lift transport, trucking, forwarding, domestic distribution and warehousing. Its capabilities include rigging works, plant transfer, factory machine installation, power plant assembly, project consultation and survey, and equipment rental. J.P. Marzan envisioned to be the most highly regarded logistics provider ready to meet the challenges of a globalized market, consistent with the best business practices. Last year, its revenue went up by more than 50 percent. LOGISTICS According to Abellar, logistics is very promising because of the current and future government infrastructure projects. “The government is focused on building the nation with major infrastructure and transportation projects where J.P. Marzan is a big part of,” says Abellar. Already, J.P. Marzan is present in some of these major projects. For instance, it is responsible in bringing girders for the building of skyways and trains. They are closely working with the Mitsubishi Construction of Japan, the lead contractor for the Manila subway project to be launched within the year. “It is going to be an end to end project, we provide transport for tunnel boring, and we have the manpower to provide the nitty gritty parts,” adds Abellar. For the energy sector, they also facilitate in the delivery of turbines, which could weigh 160 tons on the average and cost millions of dollars. At J.P. Marzan, Abellar said they conduct surveys and research on how to execute the project. “If we think we can do it we have a firmed handshake, but if we cannot, we don’t,” says Abellar. With good resource base, J.P. Marzan is one of the top three now in this specialized logistics business. Their trucks alone are almost 30 tractor heads already, excluding the specialized trailers. “We are not even thinking to be number one but be a part in nation building. As long as everyone is earning and we are able to provide services to Filipinos so we can have first-class public transport on a daily basis that is good enough than being number one,” he adds. “By having good and efficient transportation system, travel would be easier anywhere in the country,” he adds. SAFETY In this kind of business, the number one consideration is always safety of the people to be able to deliver quality projects. “So, we provide all the research and we share our findings,” says Abellar adding they do a lot of collaborative work with other parties in a project especially for the safety of workers and to deliver quality project. It requires a lot of engineering work,” he adds. “We do survey from port down to yard and makes sure there are no obstruction. There is no room for accident in this kind of business because it will reflect in the organization and company. So, we need to do due diligence before doing a project,” he adds. For instance, for the MRT-7 project they have to transport train coaches. They even go to countries, which supply these equipment to make sure they are capable to do the project. That is why every delivery must be studied carefully as they carry big and wider loads. For instance, transporting very specialized equipment such as train coaches would occupy many lanes. The bore tunnel equipment can be 23-foot high and requires specialized trucks to transport them. “We need highly-skilled drivers especially going out of the port, the biggest road we have is Commonwealth so we deliver at night and we have lots of local police escorting us on motorcycles on the side, front and back of the trailer to ensure motorists will give way to the trailer truck and ensure safety,” he adds. J.P. Marzan also partners with other truckers to help augment their capacity. “We are all partners because this industry is so big,” he adds. EXPANSION J.P. Marzan is trying to diversify, but in the most unlikely field of entertainment and tourism. “The tourism business is more of our baby project that we launched early last year in partnership with French businessmen,” he adds. J.P. Marzan has ventured into a resto bar business where they have two already in Makati and a hotel. They are looking at other tourism destinations such as Palawan and Siargao. The unlikely expansion into tourism is largely driven by the strong growth in the tourism sector. “As long as there is business potential, we will go there,” he adds. In the entertainment sector, J.P. Marzan is into production of shows. In fact, it was supposed to stage a concert in April in Spain had it not for the global outbreak of the COVID-19 disease. J.P. Marzan has invested in fast growing industries where growth has not shown any sign of slowing down. “Even with the trade war and virus, our focus is there,” he says. In fact, the company is building its corporate center in Carmona, Cavite as most of their business partners are located in the south, particularly the Japanese. The corporate center is also very accessible from Manila. They expect to move into their new corporate center in December this year. The new headquarters, with estimated development cost of ₱30 million to ₱32 million, will also have enough parking space and easy deployment of trucks. With the infrastructure program of the government, the company expects lots of opportunities in the country. But it is also looking at the smaller economies in the region where they could be the first to offer logistics services. Abellar said they are also talking with some Japanese partners for potential business in ASEAN, particularly in Bangladesh where their services may be needed. Bangladesh hosts lots of manufacturing companies and is improving its infrastructure as well. “Industry people always compare notes. It is always difficult and hard but we don’t move away from these challenges because we are capable of doing it,” he adds noting of the huge capital requirements for this kind of infrastructure projects. SERVICE “Our concept is not to earn as big, for as long as everyone is happy. We treat clients the way we want people to treat us,” says Abellar, who joined J.P. Morgan in 2017. This means ensuring quick response to clients. “We don’t send email but we pick up phones and call them directly because we also want to serve them quickly. That is how we develop good business relationships,” he adds. They value all clients because these are the same people they would cross paths again in the future. According to Abellar, he was about to finally migrate to the US when Jesus Mari, his batchmate since their grade school at San Beda University asked him to join his company. At that time, he was also doing banking with multinational corporation JP Morgan CHASE & Co. “I spent my corporate life with JP Morgan for 11 years so from an MNC to a local company,” says Abellar, an American green card holder. There may be some differences, but Abellar said that J.P. Marzan has the same very professional culture. “J.P. Marzan does not just pay check, shake hands and go,” says Abellar but they continue to engage with clients and walk the extra mile. In the office, the emphasis is to respect people with dignity. “Do not be judgmental, even if they do not deliver always, we have to hear both sides,” he adds. J.P. Marzan employs 115 full time employees, majority are truckers. With his schoolmate’s invitation to help him run his young company, Abellar’s sense of patriotism kicked in. He was convinced the company has all the opportunities given the exciting huge infrastructure program of the government. “This infrastructure build-up is so exciting for all of us Filipinos because this kind of infrastructure build-up happened only during the Marcos regime and now, we are moving again. It is time we witness the transformation that will hopefully bring positive news to the country,” he adds. Despite the dreaded COVID-19, Abellar is confident the logistics industry can weather this problem because most of their equipment are automated and have lesser human interaction. “This industry is not directly affected by COVID-19 so we are still optimistic,” he adds. CFO As the person who practically holds the company purse, Abellar makes sure that every single centavo is spent properly. He shuns wastage like getting multi-million-peso equipment that can only be used sparingly but depreciates quickly. “So, we have to justify, why, how long all these projects can go and if we can sustain that then I might consider purchasing such important equipment, otherwise we outsource,” he says. Although he is not the kind of manager who micro manages, Abellar said that at times he needs to do that because it is family-owned corporation. “Here, I have to be micro, I have to look at accounting, I have to ensure we have a balanced budget, not just approve it but put a progress report and review projects regularly,” he says as the company is starting to put in more systems. He is always a calculated risk-taker and balances the aggressiveness of the company. He is concerned if how much of expenses are converted into actual projects. He would like more structured processes. Once they move out of Cabuyao and into its new headquarters in Carmona, the integration of all processes and systems would make their operation seamless. “We just have to put lots of structures to ensure each step is audited because a deal in logistics could mean hundreds or millions of pesos and especially for a family business, money matters are not synchronized. We have to ensure all are approved so there will be no surprises,” adds the CFO. He would also like to strengthen the culture of professionalism. “Even if we know a client personally, we have to talk to them professionally once we sit down and start talking about the business,” he adds. RELATIONSHIP Even as they emphasize the value of professionalism, Abellar said it is important to establish very good relations with clients because this is the most important among Filipino businesses. “In the Philippines in a family-owned business, good rapport comes first before business because Filipinos are family-oriented. We value relations but in an MNC setting, we don’t care we. It is ‘Don’t waste my time, I will not waste your time thing,’ but not with classmate. We value connections, affinity, and even close friends and it works. It’s very personalized kind of thing,” says Abellar, who treasures his weekends at home with family, kids and dogs. “Relationship is important, money is secondary. Treat them as part of the family and they would trust you,” he adds. In an MNC, it is like a box where everything is about business strategy. He may have agreed to a pay cut when he joined his schoolmate, but what is more comforting is “I am part of the family running the business.” He described his boss Jesus Mari as a very compassionate person to his employees as compared to Abellar’s orientation in an MNC where they are very strict when it comes to employee integrity. Sometimes, he would like to impress to his boss his own orientation that they are not “a charitable organization.” But his boss is different, whose very religious upbringing makes him a very compassionate leader. In fact, J.P. Marzan donates a lot of money to the church. They start all projects on site with a prayer in one corner for the safety of all. They offer mass when vying for a particular project and still offer a mass even if they did not get the project. LESSONS One of the lessons he learned in the corporate life, especially with J.P. Marzan, is to treat people the way you want them to treat you. “It is just as simple as that and remember there are always two sides of the story before you judge,” he says. A strong believer of transparency, Abellar shuns sugar coating. “Don’t be afraid to see the truth because if you are not hiding anything, just be very straight forward,” he says. His joys at J.P. Marzan is helping put the organization on top of the logistics industry and to make them a household name. Amid all these, the company’s ultimate fulfillment is ensuring everybody in the company and their clients happy.