Mr. Moo’s: A small biz with a big heart

Over a decade ago, couple Mike and Charisse Mercado built a small business with the aim of making available farm-fresh milk and milk products in the market and ensuring that dairy farmers get fair pay for their produce.

Called Mr. Moo’s Milk Planet Co., the company serves as the link of dairy producers, organized into cooperatives, to the end consumers. It also serves as the consumers’ partner in ensuring that only quality milk and milk products are sold in Mr. Moo’s outlets.

The quality of  Mr. Moo’s products has been consistently good and this built its reputation as the first “farm-fresh-milk-in-store” concept in the Philippines. This small venture has been instrumental in the development of more than 40 dairy product innovations using raw cow, carabao and goat milk.

Mr. Moo’s buys milk and milk products directly from dairy cooperatives in Nueva Ecija, Cavite, Batangas and Laguna to ensure a steady supply of fresh milk and milk products. It sells the products to end consumers through its outlets.

Mike and Charisse got the idea to put up this business while serving as missionaries of the Campus Crusade for Christ Group, doing livelihood promotion work with marginalized communities.

“This business was put up mainly to help farmers, which is one of our joys,” Mike Mercado says.

Mr. Moo’s helps dairy farmers and their cooperatives by directly transacting with them, therefore cutting out the middle man. It also provides the farmers the packaging materials for the processed milk products. This ensures farmers better prices for their products.

Mr. Moo’s partnership with dairy farmers’ cooperatives make the concept profitable, allowing both the marketing venture to expand and the dairy farmers to continue breeding the types of cows, carabao and goats that produce quality and best-tasting milk.

It encourages natural farming practices of partner-dairy farmers to guarantee premium, healthy dairy products for consumers, Mercado says.

The small business offers a wide array of milk and milk products, including pasteurized fresh milk and its flavored variants, different types white cheeses, milk shakes, white cheese dips and sauces, pastillas, cajetas and even milk soaps.

Mercado says the business is run in a way that maintains close personal supervision of the farmer/suppliers. This, he says, calls for regular visits to the dairy farms and participation in cooperative meetings. This practice ensures regular communication between Mr. Moo’s and the farmers and, more importantly, trust in each other.

Mr. Moo is sensitive enough to the needs of small dairy cooperatives to pay the full amount of raw milk upon delivery. It also absorbs the cost of products beyond expiry to help the farmers minimize their cost.

Mike Mercado says this allows small cooperatives to provide fair pay and proper working conditions to their members and workers. With a  good working environment, member-dairy farmers are able to invest in additional delivery vehicles and to improve their facilities.

Such close personal supervision and fair trade practices ensure that suppliers consistently provide premium quality, Mike Mercado says.

At present, Mr. Moo has seven branches: Il Terrazzo Mall Scout Rotonda, Quezon City; South Supermarket Filinvest, Alabang; South Supermarket, Sta. Rosa, Laguna; Soledad ; Nuvali in Sta. Rosa; Sta. Rosa, Tagaytay Road, Pasong Lanka in Cavite; Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay Road beside City Market in Tagaytay and Aquinaldo Highway in Silang.

A new branch will open soon in Market! Market! in Taguig.

Recently, Mr. Moo decided to expand further via the franchising route.

In line with the couple’s philosophy of promoting fair pay for quality products and services, Mr. Moo’s guarantees fair wages to its shop employees.

On top of this, the company gives citations for good performance through the “Best Employee of the Month” award.

The “Best in Sales” and “Best Employee of the Year” are also selected and rewarded with appliances.

Through the years, Mr. Moo’s following has grown steadily and the business has been gaining more patrons in Metro Manila while those in Southern Luzon continue to multiply.

Mr. Moo’s believes expansion is attainable through teaming up  with investors through franchising. More key players are neededto meet the demand of the booming market for fresh dairy products, Mercado says.

When small business owners have good relationship with their employees, suppliers and partners in business, quality service and quality dairy products flow naturally, Mercado says.