The secret of Carryboy’s success: product, quality and teamwork

For Carryboy’s Jun Ylagan and wife Angel Belleza, putting up a business is a task that entails hard work, endurance and patience—but it does not have to be complex.

“Just listen to the customers, give them a good product, and they will come,” Jun says. They have made Carryboy, the pick-up truck canopies we see everywhere on the road these days, a well-known brand in the country. Carryboy was brought to the Philippines by Jun in 1996. The brand practically became synonymous to pick-up truck canopies.

Angel, Jun’s very supportive wife, explains the company’s secret to success: “We listened to what the market needed, and expanded when given the opportunity.”

At first, the couple was just selling flat truck-bed covers—a sturdy, lockable, and classier version of the old-fashioned trapal (tarpaulin), which is used to cover truck beds in the 1980s.

“Many wives did not want their husband to buy the flat covers because, for one, it made their husband look single. “Many wives also liked the extra space that a canopy top can give. It leaves room for more cargo, and it was more practical,” says Angel.

The couple thus decided to start selling the Carryboy canopies to help maintain the peace in their customers’ households. “The great thing about these canopies,” Jun said, “is that they can be clipped on. You don’t have to drill holes in the pick-up’s body, so you don’t ruin your truck’s finish.”

How did it start?

“I was just interested in cars. When I was single, I had this pick-up truck that I liked to dress up. Instead of putting a tarpaulin cover on its bed, I had a hard molded plastic cover custom-built for it. After that, people would ask me where I got the cover. So many people asked me about it, I decided to sell it. I never had to market the product,” he beamed.

He adds that people have learned to equate price with quality.

The quality of Carryboy is something that Jun stands firmly on.

Finance is where Angel comes in. A skillful money manager, she nonetheless used to stay away from her husband’s business. But then, there came a time when cash was not moving as it should, and Jun could not sleep thinking so much about it. That’s when she offered her help, which he gladly accepted.

“This is a skill I learned from my mother,” Angel says. “She was a doctor by profession, but she stayed at home to take care of us. She was very smart with money. She did not only have a savings account, she also had investments. She knew all the interest rates of all the major banks as if she were a walking database of information.”

So, when Angel was looking for a bank to manage Carryboy’s funds, her mother pointed her to Plantersbank.

“At Plantersbank, they go to our office to pick up our deposits—we won’t have to carry cash out into the street on our way to the bank. That’s a valuable service I have not found anywhere else.” Plantersbank also handles Carryboy’s payroll at no charge at all. These two cash management services are available to the bank’s clients who maintain a certain average daily balance with the bank.

Carryboy is now expanding its line from just pick-up canopies to rear truck bodies like caravan mobile homes, ambulances and mobile stores to suite their customers’ varying needs. They’re now also into nationwide distribution.

To learn more about Carryboy products, visit www.carryboyphil.com or call (02) 366-0299. Their main showroom is located at 270 D. Tuazon St., Barangay Manresa in Quezon City. Their other branches are at The Fort, Alabang and Banawe Avenue in Quezon City.