Mariano Que initially worked as an employee of a drugstore during the prewar era but like most typical successful entrepreneurs, Que found his opportunities after the war and during the advent of the American occupation.
The destruction of the prewar establishments left everyone starting and rebuilding from scratch, and those who had a wider perception of the people’s needs seemed to had the greater advantage. Mariano Que saw the demand for sulfa drugs, since most of the Philippine pharmacies hardly had enough resources to go by.
Using his prewar experience as a drugstore employee, Mariano invested 100 pesos worth of sulfathiazole tablets and peddled them in single doses so they could be affordable to the poverty-stricken sector. He rolled over his profits until he had enough money to build a wooden pushcart. That way, he could peddle a wider assortment of pharmaceutical products. Corazon D. Ong-CDO Foodsphere,Inc.
Corazon D. Ong is a dietitian by profession who used her knowledge to create affordable processed meat products that could compete with the already well known and established processed meat brands. Initially, it was only a hobby where she could put to good use her creativity and skill in culinary arts. She came up with corned beef, hotdogs, meatloaf, hamburger patties and ham, an entity that she later sold as a home business. She founded CDO Foodsphere in 1975; as the product’s reputation for affordable quality became widespread, the demand for CDO products likewise increased.
The creative homemaker understood every mother’s need for quick lunch fixes for their children but convenience should also come in affordable packages. Corazon likewise understood the taste preferences of Filipino children but her knowledge of ingredients and their nutritional values gave her product the advantage.
Today, CDO Foodsphere is a highly-recognized supplier of meat toppings for Yum! Restaurant International, a known operator of global Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) , which includes Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell and Long John Silver . Locally, CDO supplies the meat toppings to nine out of ten QSRs operating in the Philippines. The clamor for CDO products stems from numerous awards and recognitions that the processed meat products have received, owing to their quality and excellence.
