WILLIAM BELO AND THE SPIRIT OF 100 STORE

Reaching a milestone can be both a celebration and a renewed challenge. That is what Chairman-Emeritus William T. Belo realizes about Wilcon Depot launching its 100th store in Lubao, Pampanga, on December 13, 2024, a full year ahead of its target date.

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Although he has handed over the reins of Wilcon Depot's day-to-day operations to his children and his most trusted senior management team, there is no stopping this man's commitment to cascade his legacy of caring for the Filipino builder and sourcing premium products from local and global manufacturers. He is at the office ahead of most of his employees, cheering them to dish out the personalized service Wilcon Depot is known for.

A COLLEGE DREAM

Building one hundred stores may have been far from the mind of a young college student in the seventies. Armed with a strong entrepreneurial spirit, it took courage to start a business during the time of Martial Law. "My idea when I was in college was to grow some kind of business. I started working in a hardware store as a college student at the University of Santo Tomas. Eventually, from being a salesman, I became part of the business operations. That gave me the idea to put up my own store, believing that it would mean an easier life for me and eventually my family", Belo reminisces.

But the idea proved to be more difficult than he thought. Yet even at that young age and relative inexperience, Belo started off with a handful of colleagues and they did all the networking and hard work from the start. Failure was never an option. "I had to make sure that I would be successful. With five to six years of hands-on experience, I felt competent enough to do it. I plunged into sourcing and securing credit lines from different suppliers. Then I started putting up the store. Gradually, the people came. I started with only four people - myself, two cousins, and another person."

BUILDING BONDS