Jeepney shop turns to car assembly

Jeepney shop turns to car assembly

By Ramoncito dela Cruz

MANILA (Reuter): The Filipino jeepney, admired by visitors but more often cursed by Manila motorists, has taken Fernando Francisco a long way.

Francisco started out painting the distinctive mini-buses just after World War II with his older brother Anastacio.

Now he heads the country's only 100 percent Filipino-owned vehicle assembly company and is cashing in on the boom in car ownership as the Philippine economy grows.

Fernando, then 18, and Anastacio, 31, set up a paint shop in suburban Manila, using the body of converted U.S. army surplus jeeps as their canvases.

Jeepneys, still using the same design, are the most widely used form of public transport in the Philippines. Admired by visitors for their garish decoration, they are more often reviled by Manila motorists as a major contributor to the capital's nightmarish traffic.

Before the war, the two brothers used to hand-paint horse- drawn carriages.

Fernando, who took the helm of Francisco Motor Corp. after Anastacio died in 1984, said the small jeepney shop turned to autobody building and jeep assembly in less than five years.

"The business quickly expanded due to huge turnover," he said in an interview.

The company, which started with capital of just 200 pesos (now about US$7.70), in 1994 boasted total sales of 939 million pesos ($36.12 million).

It employs more than 1,000 workers in two assembly plants. The brothers formed a tie-up in 1955 with Luneta Motor Co., the local distributor of British-made Fords and Thames trucks, to market Francisco jeepneys nationwide.

"They saw the potential of the jeepneys. Aside from cars that they distributed, they also distributed jeepneys all over the country," Fernando said.

Assembling

Because of this tie-up, Francisco also began to assemble British Ford Consuls and Thames light trucks.

In the mid-1960s, Isuzu Motors Ltd. appointed Francisco as its franchised assembler and distributor.

"With the Isuzu engines, we decided to depart from assembling jeepneys with reconditioned engines, but with brand new engines," Francisco said.

The jeepneys with the Isuzu engines outsold other brands but Francisco later relinquished its Isuzu franchise in favor of Mazda Motor Corp.

By then, it started to produce Asian Utility Vehicles using Mazda 1200 cc engines.

Francisco introduced its own "Pinoy" brand in 1975 and "Anfra" in 1989.

Jeepney production took a back seat in the 1980s as small assemblers using reconditioned engines sprouted up and started to eat into Francisco's market. The economic turmoil of the mid- 1980s also made buyers less discriminating.

Fernando sees jeepney demand continuing but says Francisco is now concentrating light trucks and cars.

The company still assembles the occasional jeepney, often for foreign buyers smitten by the colorful vehicles. But its main focus is on its joint venture agreements with Fiat Spa, Mazda Motor Corp. and Hyundai Motor Co. Ltd. to assemble their vehicles for the local market.

In another one-off custom job, it also assembled the bullet- proof vehicle used by Pope John Paul II when he visited the country in January.

While Fernando sees continuing growth in car and truck assembly in the Philippines, he is less optimistic about the early prospects for a Filipino-designed and manufactured car.

"We are not yet ready," he said. "It may take 25 years before one can become an independent manufacturer."