Chicken cage maker raises more than poultry.

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire
 | June 01, 2003 | Copyright
(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)
Byline: Mei Magsino, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau
STO. TOMAS, Batangas-Anyone in this province who wants to succeed in the poultry business only need to go to one person.
Even Dr. Miguel Ambal, the biggest poultry raiser in San Jose town, agree.
"Go to Jess Medina and you will have nothing more to ask," Ambal says.
In Barangay San Miguel, Dr. Jess Medina, owner of Jemcy Enterprises, gives the answer in two words: Jess' cages.
Right chicken cage
Known in the province as simply Jess' poultry cage, the steel cage is a product of a 12-month design study that eliminated all the possible problems a poultry raiser would encounter in the business.
"In San Jose, I'm known not just for selling chicken cages, but also for helping the poultry farmer in managing his poultry. But that doesn't end there. I even provide guidance through marketing strategy," Jess says.
San Jose town, which is considered as the egg capital of the province, has the biggest number of poultry raisers in Luzon.
"Seventy percent of all poultry raisers in San Jose are my clients," Jess says. "While in the entire province, 60 percent of the poultry raisers use my cages."
Doctor of animals
A doctor of veterinary medicine with years of experience as resident veterinarian in big poultry farms, Jess discovered the factors that determine the success and failure of the poultry business.
"The wrong practices before were in the wrong way of manure handling that brought discomfort and unnecessary heat, and depleted the necessary ventilation for the chicken," Jess says.
In 1987, he designed the cage that would fit in a poultry building and ensure that the manure is always dry.
"That way, it goes well with the environment and the cages are positioned a lot higher from the ground than the traditional cages," he claims.
Jemcy cages have actually reached the biggest poultry raisers all over the country.
Beside his house in San Miguel, there is a 4,000-head-layer poultry. The only smell one can sniff is that of chicken feed.
The absence of flies is also remarkable.
"The big difference is that aside from being a cage manufacturer, I also use the product in my poultry business. That way, it's easier to know where the error lies," Jess adds, "It also helps me solve the problems faster."
From the 20 layer chickens he started in 1987, he now has 30,000 chickens that lay eggs two to three times a day.
"I used to have 500 grow-outs when I started. Now I have 87,000 heads," Jess adds.
Grow-outs are chickens that are ready to lay eggs and are sold to poultry raisers who don't want to trouble themselves with raising the chicken from chick up.
Business acumen
Jess says his good business acumen was not just developed. He says he learned a lot from his mother.
A son of a former army sergeant, Jess is the second eldest son in a brood of five.
His father died when he was in his second year high school.
From their house in Fort Bonifacio, they transferred to the squatter's area in Bago Bantay, Quezon City. There, the family struggled to make both ends meet.
His mother sold home-cooked food at a small canteen near their house.
That business and his army scholarship helped him finish college.
After finishing Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at the Araneta University, now De La Salle University in Malabon, it was his turn to support his other siblings.
Life was getting better until the recession after the Aquino assassination in 1983.
He lost his job as supervisor at the Mr. G farms in San Luis town, Batangas that same year.
With the P3,500 separation pay he got from the company, he bought animal health products that he sold to poultry raisers in the province.
"To save on lunch that I had for free, I stayed at the Elite Enterprises in San Jose town, where I was their part-time veterinarian. That time, every centavo was worth saving."
Life became more difficult when his wife's former boss tried to get his clients with offers of cheaper animal health supplies.
But he worked to replace one client lost with ten more.
Through rain or shine
Rain or shine, he peddled the medicines in far-flung villages.
"Once in Barangay Galamay Amo, San Jose town, the client's poultry farm was five kilometers from the road. If I hired a tricycle, I would have to pay P100 to get there and another P100 to get back. I chose to walk all the way to my client's farm even if it was raining and the flood was knee-deep," Jess says.
He also peddled T-shirts, shorts and jeans in 1986.
"That time, I would go to my clients with T-shirts, shorts, and pants in my left hand, and animal health products in my right hand. That was how dedicated I was to my work," he adds.
Life was too hard then until he met the town's biggest poultry-raiser who lent him money to start the cage business.
"Dr. Ambal bought poultry supplies from me. In turn, I checked on his farm until he asked how he could help me. That time, they used to buy the flooring of their poultry cages from Bulacan. And I was already seeing some defects in those cages," he adds.
Ambal lent him P20,000, which he used to make 60 poultry cages that sold out fast.
From the earnings of the 60 cages the business grew.
"Now I have saturated the entire country," Jess says.
Environment-friendly
The designs ensure the drying of the manure and provide ventilation to the chickens.
"With proper ventilation, the chicken will not feel any discomfort and will lay more and better eggs, and since the cages are higher from the ground where the manure falls, the chicken are not affected by smell and heat from the manure," he says.
Jess' cages come in black iron, treated iron, powder-coated, plastic-coated, lead-coated, electro-plated, and epoxy-coated.
Jess has not yet patented his cages.
"The poultry cages business started in 1987 but I wasn't able to have it patented. I don't think patenting it can really protect me."
An engineer in San Jose even imitated his design, but his imitated business failed because the engineer does not have the expertise of a veterinarian-businessman like Jess who knows every aspect of the poultry raising business.
Fully automated
"Before, making the poultry cages was very difficult because we had to do it manually. The most difficult part was to straighten the wires and cut them, which took a lot of time and energy.
Later, Jess studied the process and was able to design a machine that increased his production from seven kilos of wire per person in one day to 45 kilos.
A year later, he made a better design that now enables a worker to produce 135 kilos of wire per day, which when turned into cages, could house 2,500 chickens a day.
His manufacturing plant is located in his backyard, including the animal health supply laboratory and the poultry house.
"Before I had only two men working with me, now there are a total of 84 people working at the plant and the poultry farms," Jess says.
In the manufacturing plant and even in the farms, most of Jess' workers are transformed men.who used to be near the edge of trouble.
When he employed them in his company, not a day goes by without his sermon and encouragement for them to improve their lives.
"I always tell myself that I was given this good opportunity to be able to help people and transform them into good people," Jess says. "My non-stop sermon to my people everyday is meant to transform them and develop in them the value of hard work and good work. With that, I was rewarded with responsible people who have malasakit (concern) with the business."
"I have this way of telling them in a very diplomatic and easy-to-understand way that this business is not mine alone. God merely uses this business and me to help them and with that they should take care of this business as if it was their own," Jess adds.
In the town, parents of problem youths come to him to transform their troubled sons into responsible men who are able to reach their full potentials.
For Jess and his wife Marcy, the outcome of every project must not only be good for them.
"We make sure that our clients will earn more. That's why, when we deliver the cages, I also see to it that our clients, especially the new ones in the poultry business, will be guided with the right methods."
When he visits one of his poultry farms in San Jose, the workers make sure that he and his car are completely sanitized.
"That's to protect the chickens from any outside germs that anybody who enters could be carrying. That's how dedicated they've become," Jess adds. "In any business, to be successful, there should be dedicated people to run and maintain it.
Jess says, "As a veterinarian, I provide that lifetime guidance to our clients for free, that's why we have developed relationships with our clients."
His family members also help Marcy, who is in-charge of the production department for the cages.
"I handle the quality control, marketing, and delivery, while my wife handles the production department," Jess says.
"At this early I try to involve my three sons in the business. Gradually, I immerse them in the real world of this business and in our development projects to help the out of school youths," he says.
How much has the company earned since 1987, Jess has no idea.
"Our biggest achievement is not measured in monetary value, but in the value of relationships we have developed with our clients all over the country through the years. Our clients are not just friends, they have be come so close, like family members to us," he stresses.