It is difficult enough to carve your own niche in one’s own country and to make it in another is a much more difficult challenge to achieve. But that’s exactly what happened when a young

lad from India decided to leave the comforts of his home at the age of 19 to find his own path. Hiro Asandas, president of New Creation Manufacturing Inc., Hello Dolly Manufacturing Inc. and Chelsons Manufacturing Inc. still vividly remembers the adventures of his youth. With a laugh, he said that he left home without the consent of his parents because he was simply too young.

“ I was brought up with ornate and rather ostentatious surroundings because my grandfather was then the richest Hindi in the world. Yet I was fired with adventure and full of ideas and with determination, I took a ship to Singapore,” said Asandas.

While there, Asandas found someone who was in the indenting business of textiles and asked if he could work for him, even without a salary, because he just wanted to learn.

A few years later, armed with the know-how and the experience, Asandas decided it was time to start his own company. He heard so many wonderful things about the Philippines and wanted to set up his business here. But when he landed in the Philippines in 1954, he had no money to start his own business, since he worked in Singapore without any salary. But as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. So he asked some acquaintances he knew in the business, mostly the chinese wholesalers and retailers for help. “I went to Juan Luna, Ilaya, Tabora and Rosario streets in Binondo and asked for textile samples. Then I would walk the length of about eight kilometers daily, spanning Juan Luna, Escolta, Plaza Santa Cruz, Carriedo, Echague, Quezon Boulevard, Avenida and back, selling my wares.” He added that he was quite lucky because “I earned their trust and the chinese took to me like fish to water and helped me grow.”

It was during these times that he had an epiphany. He said to himself, “every human being at one time or another needs to sleep, take a nap or rest. Yet no department store in the Philippines was carrying any bedsheets.” He explains that during those days, people just made their own bedsheets with the help of a local sewer. But the bedsheets and the textiles had so many imperfections and after a few washes, they would tear. It was then that Asandas decided to help people get their money’s worth and make their sleep much more comfortable by making bedsheets.

In 1956, he put up his first factory making bedsheets. He approached the existing department stores at that time to market his bedsheets but they refused because according to them, “it simply wasn’t done.” Finally, Asandas managed to convince one chinese curio shop to display one piece of the bedsheets in his store. After a few days the owner called him up and started ordering by the dozen, telling him his bedsheets were in demand. After that, Asandas went to the Manila Hotel to try his luck. The hotel manager at that time told him that they only bought imported bedsheets. So he thought of using “Canadian” as a brand name. One month later, he sent his agent back to the hotel with the same products under the new brand. He promptly got an order of a thousand pieces of bedsheets. He said that that’s when he knew he’s got it made.

In 1959, he formally set up his company called New Creation Manufacturing, with the focus on manufacturing bedsheets, comforters, pillowcases and towels for the domestic market under the brand name “Canadian.”

In 1972, Asandas expanded into the manufacture of infants and children’s wear, infant layette collection and gift sets under the “Hello Dolly” brand name. By 1979, the company started selling internationally to Europe, Australia and the Middle East. The company kept growing at a rapid pace. In 1995, they acquired the license for Disney and Snoopy infants wear and accessories. Soon after, they acquired other brands including, Classic Pooh, Barbie, Looney Tunes, WWE, Hotwheels and NBA.

Today, the brand name “Canadian” is a household name in the Philippines and has made its mark globally as a brand synonymous to quality bedsheets and linens. They had also recently collaborated with Filipino fashion designers to make couture beddings. Asandas had also brought in his son Ravi Daryanani as the company’s managing director and his grandson Chand to be in charge of sales. His factory in Parañaque City currently employs about 1,500 workers with a sales force present in all the major malls nationwide.

Looking back, Asandas credits his father and most especially his grandfather as his inspiration. “My grandfather was a silk merchant. Without any money he went to China and Japan to buy silk, sell it to India at double the price. He put up an office in Japan and exported to England, where London would send it to Manchester for printing and processing. The silk would then be exported to Europe, including Switzerland, where they were famous back then for having the best silks in the world. But in fact, they don’t have any silk industry. So all those actually came from my grandfather.” The most important thing, he said, is to always give customers good quality and value for their money. It doesn’t matter who you are or what nationality you come from. That way, you give good karma and you generate more good karma in return.