26/05/2021
A very strong & diligent lady full of dreams started it all back in 1974 when the company was registered as Tribesmen Products Enterprises, owned by Mrs. Natividad Co Somera. As she would always say, “I started everything with only a capital of PhP70.00 during that time…” She would just make few pieces of finished products from small stores with no car service and employees of her own at all. That went about for seven (7) years until some time that orders and capital were becoming bigger and it started to supply to exporters within Metro Manila.
She started to develop and established her checks, credibility and reliability in 1978, wherein she opened an account of five hundred pesos (P500.00) only. After a few years, TPE has been buying and selling raw materials of shells and drastically increased her capital up to seven hundred thousand pesos (P700,000.00).
It was in 1989 when she started exporting raw materials particularly to Korea. It was very risky for her, but with her guts and good purpose in life she succeeded. Then raw materials and shell craft items were being exported at the same time, which made the company expanded production, other than having bigger quantity of employees, through subcontractors within Metro Manila, including Bicol, Pangasinan and Cebu manufacturers. In 1994, the company started exporting to Japan and to some parts of Europe, U.S., Taiwan, Malaysia and other countries. Up to the present, Tribesmen Products Enterprises is engaged in exporting, manufacturing, retail and wholesale sales of sea shells and other marine products, and happens to be one of the largest in the Philippines.
It was a very long and difficult time before such improvement was reached considering that she has to work, manage everything, and bring up her five sons all by herself. The company’s dynamic leadership, competent staff and workers, reliability and quality of products and services make Tribesmen Products Enterprises what it is today.
To God Almighty, our heartfelt gratitude!
