Wife For Sale

Chapter One

CHAPTER ONE

The Permanent Blow

  

April 13, 2007. Friday. Geoffrey Torres, a famous Filipinas Basketball Association (FBA) three-time MVP turned ramp and commercial model turned movie and TV personality turned motorcycle racer met a freak motocross accident which caused him severe damage to his left foot when his motorbike landed directly on it. He had a broken ankle, torn tendons and severely disrupted ligaments. He was just twenty-seven when it happened.

He had undergone surgeries. Screws and metal plates had been even required to re-attach the ligaments to the bones. Long cast and soft cast were also required after the surgeries. He had also undergone extensive and prolonged physical therapy so he could be able to walk again. Naturally, he had retired from basketball, ramp modeling, movie and TV acting and racing.

The only thing he hadn’t retired on was being the heir to the biggest corporation in Filipinas, Torres Food and Beverage Corporation, a well-known producer of processed food, beverages and other products with more than one hundred facilities in Asia-Pacific Region and more or less twenty thousand employees working together.

Torres Food and Beverage Corporation (TFBC) was first listed as a family-owned brewery in 1899. Don Pedro Torres applied for a royal grant from Spain to brew beer in Filipinas. In 1900 Cerveza de Torres was declared open for business. Its first brewery plant was located in Roscotta City. Several other brewery plants were built in other parts of the country. Don Pedro Torres had five sons namely – Vicente, Mariano, Benito, Jose and Juan.

The five sons formed the corporation in 1915. Modernizations had also been done with the facilities and several more beers and gins were produced.  It also started exporting to neighboring countries during that year.

In 1920’s, the corporation diversified into new lines of businesses. They went into soft drink and ice cream businesses. They also established more plants.

In 1930’s they invested in businesses overseas. In 1940, the management was reorganized along the lines of corporations in USA. The management team was made of board directors (president, vice president, treasurer and nine directors and the executive officers of the corporation). The management team was comprised of Don Pedro Torres’ sons and grandsons. Further modernization and expansion meant diluting family control. The Torres Clan maintained 51 percent shares and the rest were owned by thousands of shareholders.

Before World War II, they had built a glass factory. Some of its plants had been affected by war. After the war, they had rebuilt and mounted a large scale expansion.

In 1960’s, the only Torres who had lived was Don George Torres, the youngest of all the grandsons of Don Pedro. He had inherited the rest of the 51 percent shares. Don George Torres only had one heir, Don George Torres II.

In 1980’s Don George Torres II led the hired management team and their thousands of shareholders into poultry production as well as beef and pork production. Several packaging plants had also been established for all the products of the corporation.

In early 2000’s, Don George Torres III, the only heir of Don George Torres II led the corporation in becoming the undisputed market leader in Filipinas’ fast growing food industry, owning two-thirds of the processed meat market and over one-third of the poultry and feeds industries. TFBC also manufactured distilled water.

TFBC was the largest publicly listed food, beverage and packaging company in Southeast Asia. Their products included – alcoholic beverages (beers, wines and spirits), non-alcoholic drinks (sodas, fruit juices, sparkling ciders, sports drinks and carbonated beverages), dairy products (milks, cheeses, ice creams, yogurts, buttermilk, butter and cream cheese, meat products (fresh and processed) and animal feeds (poultry, hog and cattle). International sales also continued to boost. The corporation also bought majority of shares of other food and beverage companies of other Asia-Pacific countries.