MANILA, Philippines—Ramon Santos makes a living out of making people happy.
Being in the amusement industry, he has drawn smiles from countless children all over the Philippines. His company, Westech International Phils Inc., is one of the leading manufacturers of rides and equipment.
Santos used to work for the development team of Star City. “I was one of their pioneers and I have learned a lot from that company,” he says.
In 1997, he took the risk of setting up his own manufacturing company. With the help of his family, he decided to bring his vision to reality.
“It was a risk I had to take in order to start,” he says. In his 5,000-square-meter property in Sto. Cristo, San Isidro, Nueva Ecija, he manufactured his initial equipment. This was where he encountered birth pains.
“At that time, the amusement industry here was quite new. And our quality as well as safety was still questionable,” Ramon says. “It was the Asian financial crisis at that time and importation of amusement rides became prohibitive. It was actually a blessing in disguise for us.”
To gain the trust and confidence of his customers, he made quality and safety his top priority. He exposed his employees particularly his technicians to extensive training.
Santos acquired contracts abroad and experienced technicians came over to supervise the installation of the amusement rides. “My employees learned from the best until they applied what they learned in our actual production,” the 47-year-old owner says.
Santos also adds that the Filipino workers are fast learners. They possess an eye for details. Improvement in the quality of their work became apparent. In the year 2000, mall giant SM took notice of his company’s work and decided to acquire his services to provide safe and quality-ensured amusement rides. “I’d like to think that they noticed us because our work stood out from the rest,” he adds.
Since then, Westech became the provider of rides for World of Fun, Quantum, G-Box Amusement, Tom’s World, Timezone, Star City and various clients.
At first, they ordered small single-seat rides. He explains that since these are machines, they have always been subject to abuse. “Sometimes there would be more than one child who would be riding the machine,” he says. Thus, the machine would often need maintenance. The company has to add more improvements for their rides to withstand it and operations would be more dependable.
He saw this as a leverage to further broaden his company’s services. Santos then offered after-sales service.
“We make it a point that if they call today, they will be served on the day itself,” he explains. “I believe in immediate action. I don’t like making my customers wait,” he says. Aside from maintenance, Santos also attends to system failure and mechanical problems.
Yet just like the metals he used, his company also had to go through fire to eliminate the impurities. His biggest challenge was not to be crushed by colossal competitors like China. “It’s tough to compete with China. Sometimes their selling price would just be our manufacturing cost. But I decided to face the challenge head on,” Santos says.
Santos expanded his business to create medium-size equipment. He built trains, jet rides, carousels, bumper cars and eventually made Ferris wheels, roller coasters and various kinds of family rides.
Being the visionary that he is, Santos also decided to export his various amusement rides to Africa, Russia, Middle East, Gulf Area, Indonesia and Malaysia. He stamped his equipment with the seal of being proudly Pinoy.
“Our amusement rides are all-Filipino. From welding to design to the execution of engineering techniques, they’re proudly ours,” Santos narrates.
The sets of equipment are made of fiber glass and steel makes up the structural framing. “The best comment I heard from our customers abroad was that they compared our work to ones made in Europe. They thought it was European-made!” Santos exclaims.
To ensure the quality and grand designs of his amusement rides, Ramon created brand-new concepts that inspired, innovated and informed the amusement industry in its broadest sense.
“Up to now, I’m still amazed that pieces of raw materials turned into something,” he says. Santos draws his inspiration from the children who squeal in delight whenever they ride his equipment.
“It’s a priceless feeling knowing that you make these kids very happy in a simple way,” Santos says. Also, it is also fulfilling for him to have his family joining the business with his wife, Annie, who handles the HR and procurement, his son, Venntor, who is in charge of treasury and finance and daughter, Caryll, who heads the design and conceptualization.
In order to avoid stagnation, Santos shares that innovation is truly the key to constant growth. “I thought we just couldn’t stop here. We have to go beyond this. I thought of ways to improve my product and one of them was the inclusion of the railroad-less trains. I used tires to help move it around,” Santos says.
Santos enhanced the design and to make it environment-friendly, he made the trains battery operated. Other trains also operate using diesel engines. The big companies, particularly SM, Robinsons and Festival Mall took notice of his product and added it in their amusement facilities.
“I have been given much and I made it a point that I have to give back to my community,” Santos says. He explains that there is no high school facility which can be found in Sto. Cristo.
“When the children finish elementary, they have to travel some three kilometers just to attend high school in the next town. But some don’t have the means to commute so they just stop studying,” Santos narrates.
He then thought that he can use his railroad-less trains to transport the children to the next town for free. “In this way, they can still continue their studies,” he adds. To date, Santos now has 25 high school graduates who go to school every day by riding his train.
Being the barangay (village) chairman of Sto. Cristo, he also set up the Westech Training Center. This center is Tesda-accredited and trains welders. It also gives out scholarships to acquire a national certification which can be helpful if the trainee wishes to work abroad.
Since it started in 2009, the training center has sent 700 welders abroad and 400 working in various companies in the Philippines.
“It’s a different high seeing people are happy and that somehow even for a brief moment, I’ve made a difference in their lives,” Santos smiles.