HISTORY OF AFICIONADO

Joel S. Cruz or “Joel” to his family and friends is the sixth among the seven children of Mr. &
Mrs. Dionisio Cruz. Having spent all his schooling at the University of Santo Tomas from
elementary to college and honored with Loyalty Awards, he graduated with a Bachelor of
Science degree in Psychology from the University of Santo Tomas. Driven by his passion to
pursue creative undertakings and business skills, he became an entrepreneur instead of
becoming a doctor. Joel found it equally fulfilling, if not even more.With his passion for fashion,
Joel ventured into importing apparel from Hongkong and Bangkok in 1986. In 1987, he
established Joel Cruz Enterprises Inc. (apparel), manufacturing and selling apparel to leading
department stores in Metro Manila. In 1997, with the glut of apparel goods from China and
Thailand, the company saw the opportunity to switch to the perfume business. In 1999, Joel
engaged in another business venture establishing Joel Cruz Enterprise-perfumery. This was the
beginning of big things to come. Retailing is just the start of everything.On September 5, 2000,
Central Affirmative Co. Inc. was born on the process of acquiring license to distribute the
perfume brand “Affirmative” or popularly known as “AF”. In 2001. The company laboratory was
officially registered by the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD now FDA) and established as a
manufacturer and distributor of Aficionado Germany Perfume brand. In 2002, Aficionado
Boutiques were opened nationwide to reinvigorate the former apparel business. In 2006, the
company operated a 2,000 sq m plant in Sterling Industrial Park, located in Meycauayan,
Bulacan.After 5 years in business, the Aficionado brand was opened for franchising
opportunities and this catapulted the company to new heights. The Direct Dealership, Domestic
and International Distributorship, Tolling, Contract Manufacturing and Personalizing services
were established as corporate units and further spurred growth for the company. The company
supplies products to major supermarkets, drugstores and convenience stores nationwide.

On June 22, 2007, the company opened Signatures by Joel Cruz Inc. with the brand Joel Cruz
Signatures engaged in a new line of perfume and personal care products to scented home
products.The company has spawned into a family of brands: Aficionado Germany Perfume as
the leading Philippine made perfume in the market. The brand Joel Cruz Signatures offering
personal care products and beyond. On March 2010, the apparel business was rebranded to
Aficionado-Your Fashion and Scents Store and registered with the IPO in September of the
same year.
The company acquiring new technology in manufacturing and implementing systems upgrade
like SAP (ERP) and an integrated supply chain is geared towards the year 2020 as a small-
medium sized company to achieving bigger success and growth.
Doctor-to-be-turned-entrepreneur Joel S. Cruz, or his monicker “The Lord of Scents”, is a
graduate of the UST in 1986 with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Psychology of a pre-
medicine course to become a doctor. Instead, he decided to engage in the apparel business to
the dismay of his parents. He is a full-blooded Thomasian through and through and was a
student leader in his high school days. His decision to pursue business inspired by his parents,
who were both business people, lead him to achieve phenomenal success in the Philippine
fragrance industry with his brand Aficionado Germany Perfume which dominates the specialty
fragrance retail market and forges ahead to burst into the international business scene.

The precursor company to Central Affirmative Co. Inc. was Joel Cruz Enterprises, Inc. This was
an apparel sub-contracting company that catered to major departments stores in the
Philippines namely, Rustan’s, SM Shoemart, Robinson’s, Anson’s and Syvel’s department stores.
The business was doing well until a setback was encountered with the 1997 Asian Crisis
affecting the business. Department stores were sourcing their apparel merchandise from China
and Thailand causing a glut in the supply of garments in the Philippines. The company was
forced to downsize its garment production operations. Despite this challenging situation, Joel
was determined to move ahead with other opportunities to engage in business bringing along
the learning he gained from the creative phase to manufacturing and production of products to
marketing.
It was both serendipity and fate that Joel met a business mentor from Henkel Company of
Germany who taught him the ropes of the fragrance industry and perfume making. This was the
brand story of Aficionado Germany Perfume. The company was formerly named Affirmative
that became popular among business networks with the acronym “AF”. This was the spin-off of
the brand name “aficionado” which was the closest word to the initials “AF”. Aficionado is a
Spanish word which means fanatic or fan, loyal or devotee. The word “Germany Perfume” was
added since most fragrance oils come from suppliers from Munich, Germany; the biggest
source of fragrance raw materials in the world even though France is the biggest manufacturer
of perfumes.
This was the start of the Aficionado Germany Perfume business that offered the mass market
quality products at very affordable product prices. The market was fertile for proudly Philippine
made products when Filipino consumer’s mindset then was that foreign brands and products
are of better quality. This was trail-blazing for Aficionado to be a market leader in this business
category of fragrance products. Competitors soon followed but Aficionado stood strong as it
offers value for money products to its customers. Joel has turned his business from a fledgling
one-kiosk store at the Gotesco Grand Central mall to a full flying dominant brand player in the
retail market. He has spawned his brand into 500 stores in malls, products carried and sold by
institutional accounts like Mercury Drugstore chain, 7-11, Puregold Supermarkets, Shopwise,
major Departments stores, drugstores, groceries, distributors up to tertiary accounts or the
“Sari-Sari Store”, direct dealership and international sales.

Joel diversified his business into personal and non-personal care products with the Joel Cruz
Signatures brand and maintained a sizeable apparel business with the AFSS (Aficionado Fashion
and Scents Store) clothing brand. The clothing brand is homage to his former apparel business
and an adaptation to market trends that perfume and fashion are entwined.

Joel built their own manufacturing plant after five years in operation at the Sterling Industrial
Park in Meycauayan, Bulacan north of Manila which is now GMP and ISO 9001:2008 certified.
This made the company’s core competency in manufacturing fragrance products aside from
retail. The company offers tolling or contract manufacturing services and has equipped the
factory with state of the art automated bottling, capping and bottle washing system.

He has utilized the SAP Enterprise Resource Planning and introduced the MPOS-Mobile Point of
Sale at stores for a more efficient inventory and financial management.

The Filipino consumers lauded the perfume brand as “Aficionado and Pambansang Pabango”
(Aficionado the National Perfume of the Philippines). Esteemed award giving bodies have
recognized the company as a formidable retail brand that has democratized the use of perfume
as an affordable luxury offering value for money products.

The company and brand is a Hall of Fame awardee by the PRA- Philippine Retailers Association
as Specialty Retailer in 2010. He was recognized by the Gawad Amerika Awards in Hollywood,
California as Outstanding Entrepreneur in the fragrance business in 2010 and another award as
Outstanding Philanthropist in 2011. He was nominated with an Agora Awards for Marketing by
the Philippine Marketing Association in 2011 & 2012 and by the MVP PLDT SME Awards in 2010
& 2011. His alma mater, UST, has bestowed one of the highest recognitions of the university,
The Outstanding Thomasian Alumni or TOTAL Awards for entrepreneurship. He was likewise
recognized by the Club Bulakeño organization with an award for Outstanding entrepreneur in
2013. The most recent award this year 2015 is the PFA-Philippine Franchise Association
Franchise Excellence Awards as Outstanding Franchise in the small store category given in
cooperation with the DTI-Department of Trade and Industry. As part of his Corporate Social
Responsibility efforts, he established his own foundation, the Joel S. Cruz Aficionado
Foundation, Inc. to provide for abandoned and neglected children and teenagers.

For almost ten years, he started visiting charity institutions as part of his company’s anniversary
celebration namely the Hospicio de San Jose, Asilo de San Vicente de Paul, Tahanang Walang
Hagdanan, UP Philippine General Hospital Pediatric wards 9 & 11 and the Missionaries of
Charity Home of Joy in Tayuman, Manila.

Unorthodox for an entrepreneur, Joel was invited to join the international franchise reality TV
show on GMA-7, the “Celebrity Duets” and emerged as the 3rd season champion with the most
text votes. The one million peso prize winnings were all donated to twenty of his chosen charity
institutions.

He is a staunch supporter of the Philippine Cancer Society as one of the ambassadors raising
funds for cancer patients annually.

In 2013, this led to an international publication, the Forbes Asia magazine to take notice and
recognize Joel as one of the forty eight Heroes of Philanthropy in Asia Pacific together with
three other prominent Filipinos namely, Henry Sy Sr. of the SM Department store
conglomerate, John Gokongwei Jr. of Robinsons Malls and Cebu Pacific Airlines and Architect
Felino “Jun” Palafox.

With family members working for his company, he has kept a good balance of work and family
life. In 2012, he was blessed with twin children through IVF procedure done in Moscow, Russia.
The twins are named Prince Sean and Princess Synne which means “gracious gift from God”.
Growing his family as well, another set of twins have arrived and aptly named them Prince
Harry and Prince Harvey. The former name means “ruler of the home” while the latter means
“battle worthy”. Joel is hoping and prayerful that his kids will inherit and run the reign of his
business empire when they grow up and would fervently care continuing the business and
brand.

Aguilos, Kristelle Claire T.

BSPT 1B

TEM-100

1. Who is the entrepreneur?

Joel S. Cruz or “Joel” to his family and friends is the sixth among the seven children of
Mr. & Mrs. Dionisio Cruz. Having spent all his schooling at the University of Santo Tomas
 from elementary to college and honored with Loyalty Awards, he graduated with a
Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Santo Tomas. Driven by
his passion to pursue creative undertakings and business skills, he became an
entrepreneur instead of becoming a doctor.

2. What is the legal or corporate name of his/her business?

The company has spawned into a family of brands: Aficionado Germany Perfume as the
leading Philippine made perfume in the market. The company was formerly named
Affirmative that became popular among business networks with the acronym “AF”. This
was the spin-off of the brand name “aficionado” which was the closest word to the
initials “AF”. Aficionado is a Spanish word which means fanatic or fan, loyal or devotee.
The word “Germany Perfume” was added since most fragrance oils come from suppliers
from Munich, Germany; the biggest source of fragrance raw materials in the world even
though France is the biggest manufacturer of perfumes
3. Classify the nature of business:
Joel Cruz business which is the aficionado is a retail , personal care and beauty type of
nature of business.
4. Based on their success story, what are the specific entrepreneurial qualities did he or
she exhibited and explain each quality?
 Goal oriented
Joel Cruz shows a quality of being goal oriented his business something he works
hard for customers to always experience the satisfaction in our perfumes.

 Passionate drive
Driven by his passion to pursue creative undertakings and business skills, he
became an entrepreneur instead of becoming a doctor. Joel found it equally
fulfilling, if not even more.With his passion for fashion, Joel ventured into
importing apparel from Hongkong and Bangkok in 1986. In 1987, he established
Joel Cruz Enterprises Inc. (apparel), manufacturing and selling apparel to leading
department stores in Metro Manila. In 1997, with the glut of apparel goods from
China and Thailand, the company saw the opportunity to switch to the perfume
business. In 1999, Joel engaged in another business venture establishing Joel
Cruz Enterprise-perfumery.
 Value oriented
“I also share this success with my family, friends and stakeholders and make it a
point to give back to the community.” Behind that quote it is obvious that Joel
Cruz shows value oriented to his friends, family and people behind his business.
5. What are the risks and rewards he or she experienced in the business?

The company and brand is a Hall of Fame awardee by the PRA- Philippine Retailers
Association as Specialty Retailer in 2010. He was recognized by the Gawad Amerika
Awards in Hollywood, California as Outstanding Entrepreneur in the fragrance business
in 2010 and another award as Outstanding Philanthropist in 2011. He was nominated
with an Agora Awards for Marketing by the Philippine Marketing Association in 2011 &
2012 and by the MVP PLDT SME Awards in 2010 & 2011. His alma mater, UST, has
bestowed one of the highest recognitions of the university, The Outstanding Thomasian
Alumni or TOTAL Awards for entrepreneurship. He was likewise recognized by the Club
Bulakeño organization with an award for Outstanding entrepreneur in 2013. The most
recent award this year 2015 is the PFA-Philippine Franchise Association Franchise
Excellence Awards as Outstanding Franchise in the small store category given in
cooperation with the DTI-Department of Trade and Industry. As part of his Corporate
Social Responsibility efforts, he established his own foundation, the Joel S. Cruz
Aficionado Foundation, Inc. to provide for abandoned and neglected children and
teenagers.

6. Cite at least 2 references of your sources.

https://www.pinoy-entrepreneur.com/2010/02/21/aficionado-germany-perfume/
http://aficionado-phil.blogspot.com/2012/02/history-of-aficionado-joel-s.html
https://business.inquirer.net/113849/joel-cruz-oozing-with-the-scent-of-success
https://enterpriseasia.org/apea/philippines/awards/ph-2015/joel-santos-cruz/