Posted by Thomas Kim, Managing Director, NetSuite Philippines
The market for hygienic paper products is fiercely competitive, but Sanitary Care Products Asia (Sanicare) earns a growing share of its home Filipino market from global rivals with product differentiation and precise execution.
The Taguig City, Philippines-based manufacturer backs its products with a simple, compelling message: clean paper from virgin wood pulp, without treatment by chlorine or artificial bleaching agents. It's a strategy that has helped Sanicare succeed since it was founded in 1996.
Bringing home and facial paper products to market may seem like a simple enough business, but Sanicare's value chain is actually quite complex. Sanicare manages over 1,000 vendor relationships and generates 20,000 invoices through its branch and satellite offices, delivering 3,000 SKUs to retail and distribution partners.
As Sanicare's business expanded tenfold and competitive pressures mounted, software started to get in the way of future growth. Cumbersome order management(opens in new tab) was sapping valuable time and resources, as the old software would freeze up under high order volume and was not properly integrated with inventory systems(opens in new tab). Large distribution and trading partners, including some of the biggest names in the Philippines like SM, PUREGOLD, Robinsons, Waltermart, and EVER Gotesco, wanted EDI integration for tighter inventory control. When a warehouse fire years ago claimed not only a considerable amount of inventory, but damaged the company's on-premise data servers as well, Sanicare knew it was time to explore new options.
After evaluating current strengths and future needs, Sanicare realized that it was not operating as a consistent, cohesive unit. This lack of clarity led to costly inventory imbalances, because the company could not accurately account for raw materials on-hand versus finished goods shipments and future needs. “We did not have a comprehensive view of our business, only islands of information,” said Ven Sio, President of Sanicare.
Keeping Sanicare growing in reputation and prominence meant making a change. So the company turned to NetSuite and, with the help of Cloudtech, implemented the solution in just four months. Today, Sanicare runs financials, order management, reporting, shipping, bill of materials, multi-location inventory, and multicurrency management in Philippine Peso and Indonesian Rupiah.
This isn't just a software story—it's a story of business transformation. Instead of operating as 22 affiliated offices, Sanicare now has complete control over the value chain. Reconciling orders and managing relationships with suppliers was once a grueling, time-consuming process. Office workers routinely stayed until 10 p.m. or later sorting out gaps in inventory data. Now, those professionals head for home at normal times, and Sanicare has tighter control over raw material inflows and finished goods shipments.
“The control NetSuite gives us over our raw materials and finished goods is critical to our continued growth,” Sio said.
Having command of multi-location inventory means that Sanicare can prioritize shipments to distributors and retailers that are nearest to stock-out conditions. That's the hallmark of a high-value supplier, and helps distinguish Sanicare in a very competitive marketplace.
With integrated order management, Sanicare spends substantially less time processing orders and reconciling the books. Next up for this Filipino success story is demand planning(opens in new tab), which will help further align future orders from tree farms with anticipated market demands for finished goods, enabling Sanicare to run even leaner. For today, the focus remains on ensuring that every retail and distribution partner is stocked and satisfied, and that Sanicare makes the most of every relationship that fuels its continued growth. “We now have the tools to understand how our business is performing at all times, from the largest retail store down to the smallest shops,” Sio said.