Financial Adviser: 5 Business Lessons Everyone Can Learn from Syril Ko, founder of Zim Cleanser Products

Growing up in a successful business family could have given Syril Ko an easy path into entrepreneurship. His father, Gonzalo Co, founded Gonzalo Laboratories, the company behind household names such as Green Cross rubbing alcohol and Zonrox. But rather than simply joining his father’s business, Ko chose to build something of his own.

In his early 20s, Ko teamed up with his brother Marciano and started producing galenicals from a small room in their family home in Pasay City. Their early products included acetone, mercurochrome, merthiolate and iodine, which they packed in small bottles and sold to wholesalers. Ko borrowed money to buy his first delivery vehicle and relied on many of the selling skills he had developed earlier as a salesman.

This modest operation eventually became the foundation of the Cymar Group of Companies. Cirimar Laboratories, Inc. was formally established in 1971 as the group’s manufacturing arm, and over the succeeding decades, Ko expanded the business into household care, baby care, cosmetics, galenicals, medical supplies and other consumer products.

Along the way, Ko developed and marketed brands such as CL, Zim, Orchid, BabyJoy and Nurture. Under Zim, the group offers household cleaning products, while Orchid carries items such as toilet deodorizers and naphthalene balls. Cirimar Laboratories produces galenical and cosmetic products, including muriatic acid, povidone-iodine, isopropyl alcohol and nail care products, while BabyJoy and Nurture cover feeding bottles, baby wipes and accessories.

Today, 55 years after Cirimar Laboratories was established, the Cymar Group remains active in the Philippine consumer products market. What makes Ko’s journey notable is that although he grew up around an established family business, he did not simply inherit his entrepreneurial success. He started his own operation, developed his own products, and gradually created a diversified consumer products group that has endured for more than five decades.

How did Ko turn a small galenicals operation into a diversified consumer products business? And what did he learn from more than half a century of developing products, building brands and competing against much larger companies?

Here are the five business lessons every entrepreneur can learn from Syril Ko, co-founder of the Cymar Group of Companies:

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Many businesses fail not because their products are necessarily bad, but because they struggle to find customers or generate enough sales to support their costs. An entrepreneur who already understands selling starts with an important advantage, which is the ability to turn a product or idea into revenue. In business, creating something is only the first step. You also have to know how to convince someone to buy it.

Having experience in selling teaches you how to listen and handle objections. It also forces you to understand the market from the customer’s point of view rather than simply assuming that a good product will sell itself.

This experience can be especially valuable when an entrepreneur eventually launches a business. Someone who knows how to sell can test demand before committing too much capital and adjust pricing and recognize when an offer is not working.

Ko’s years as a salesman gave him more than confidence in dealing with customers.

His early business in galenicals reflect that sales-driven mindset. Acetone, mercurochrome, merthiolate and iodine were practical products with existing demand. He understood where those products could be sold.

His father’s presence in Divisoria exposed him to wholesalers, and some of those relationships became potential channels for Cirimar. In effect, Ko entered business with knowledge of both what could sell and who could sell it for him. This reduced one of the biggest risks faced by a new entrepreneur: producing something first and only later figuring out how to find buyers.

His experience in selling also seems to have influenced the way he expanded. When he saw that muriatic acid could move through hardware stores, he added it to the product line. When sales volume increased, he borrowed money to buy a Ford Fiera and later acquired a bigger truck. The sequence is important. Distribution capacity followed demand rather than coming before it. Ko was effectively using sales as the signal for when to commit more capital.

Ko’s sales background had taught him that business was not simply a transaction between a manufacturer and a buyer. Relationships could provide access to customers, better supply arrangements and repeat orders. For a small company competing with larger manufacturers, those relationships could partly compensate for having less capital and fewer resources.

The deeper lesson from Ko’s experience is that selling can become a form of market intelligence. A salesperson is constantly learning which products move, which customers reorder, what prices they will accept and which distribution channels work. Ko carried that knowledge into entrepreneurship. Instead of treating sales as something that happens after a product is created, he appears to have built products and expanded operations around what he was learning from the market.

“I studied at Crusaders Academy and then Mapua,” Ko says. “I was taking commerce, but I didn't finish because I was already working. At that time, I said I would work first before starting my own business. I applied through a Chinese newspaper, and when they called me, they said the company was Automatic on Rizal Avenue. That was where I started. The company was in automatic electrical appliances which belonged to Benito Lim. I worked in sales and became a star salesman.

“When I started, I was selling batteries. So after a few months, I started selling aircon and TV. Eventually, all the customers became my customers. So they called me a star salesman because I was the one selling in volume eh. I forgot na rin, but I worked there for, I think, four or five years.

“And then I started learning how to mix. I was talking to my second brother and I said, ‘Let's make some business na.’ Because we were already familiar with pharmaceuticals eh. My father was in pharmaceuticals, particularly alcohol. So we got a guy from a laboratory who knew how to mix these galenicals. This is where we started.

“We started doing the galenicals. Galenicals means pharmaceutical products, with acetone in a small bottle. Small bottle, 15 ml, like 15 cc. And then 7.5 cc of mercurochrome, merthiolate, iodine, yung mga pang sugat. This is how I started with my brother Marciano, my second brother. And then we made this in a small room lang in our house, at Sta. Monica, Pasay City. I was twentysomething then.

“The idea came because my father was selling Green Cross rubbing alcohol in Divisoria. Sa Divisoria, he had so many customers, mga wholesaler. Some of those customers also became our customers because they were wholesalers. I sell wholesale eh.

“Acetone was something everybody was using for cleaning the cuticles, and mercurochrome and merthiolate were for wounds. From there, I also made Sebo de Macho, an ointment, and many other galenicals. They call it the galenicals segment, mostly products in small bottles. Even right now, you can go to Mercury and see some of these items, like cuticle remover, mercurochrome and alcohol.

“We called the company Cirimar Laboratory. Cirimar came from our names. Ciri is my name, Cirillo, while Mar is Marciano, my brother. So it became Cirimar Laboratory.

“And then we tried to improve the products. At that time, I didn't have a truck, so my uncle would help us with deliveries using his truck and would get a commission. Then I got help from my godfather. My godfather lent me money, and I borrowed money to buy a Ford Fiera because I didn't have a truck. This was how I started increasing the volume na.

“Many people were doing similar products, but I made many different products. One of them was muriatic acid. I would buy it from the company and then refill and repack it. Then we would send it to the hardware stores.

“Kasi ang pinabenta kong muriatic acid is my uncle, my mother's brother. Everyday wala syang gawa, puro hardware ang punta nya. Kaya yung truck eh nasisira eh. Yung muriatic pag nilagay mo dyan, nagkakalawang eh, kaya nasisira ang truck. Pero maganda, nauubos.

“The muriatic was very easy. Just repack. You have to put it in a, how do you say this, polycarbonate? Hindi pwede lata, masusunog eh. Yeah. Because the hardware stores were mostly Chinese, and my uncle would also talk to them.

“Also, when you do business, what is more important is not only dealing with the supplier, you make friends. For the supplier of the muriatic, I had to rent a truck, arkila ng truck para lalagyan ng basyo ‘no. Makati yon ah. And then I would drive my car and accompany the open truck to Valenzuela. This was in the 70s.

“At that time, I was still using the Ford Fiera, but eventually I bought a bigger truck because we could no longer cope with the volume.”

Business opportunities are often discovered by paying attention to the market rather than waiting for a completely original idea. Entrepreneurs who stay close to customers, suppliers and competitors are in a better position to recognize where demand is developing and turn those observations into profitable products or services.

Rather than adding products simply for the sake of diversification, entrepreneurs can use market signals to decide where to invest and which customer segments to pursue.

This reduces the risk of entering markets where demand is weak or where the business has little competitive advantage. The ability to identify opportunities also enables entrepreneurs to adapt more quickly as markets and customer needs change.

Ko did not begin with formal market studies. Instead, he stayed close to retailers and suppliers and watched for evidence that something was already selling. When he saw a competitor moving sulfanilamide quickly in Divisoria, for example, he recognized that there was existing demand rather than trying to create demand from scratch.

He also treated everyday conversations as a source of market intelligence. He did not dismiss the comment as casual information. He investigated the product, understood its use and found a way to sell it in bulk. This shows that his opportunity recognition often came from being curious about why certain products were moving and whether Cirimar could participate in that market.

Another important feature of his approach was that he looked for opportunities adjacent to businesses he already understood. From galenicals, he moved into muriatic acid, medical supplies, bandages and eventually baby products. These were different categories, but many could still be sold through channels such as drugstores, department stores, wholesalers and other retailers he already knew. This allowed him to diversify without having to build an entirely new distribution capability every time he introduced a product.

Over time, Ko’s advantage seems to have come from combining observation, relationships and rapid experimentation. Suppliers exposed him to products, retailers revealed what was moving, competitors showed where demand already existed, and his distribution network gave him a way to test those opportunities. Rather than waiting for one breakthrough idea, he repeatedly looked for small pieces of information that could be turned into another source of sales.

“During that time, muriatic acid was one of our strong products,” he says. “There were also other sellers, but it's how you service customers. How do you service the customer? How do you make the customer satisfied? This is very important. If you are a good salesman, this is what you're going to do.

“Kasi muriatic, no one's going to stock too much because of the fumes eh. Pag nilagay mo sa karton yan, yung karton naging apa. Nasisira. So when the customers bought, they would only get a few cartons. Ang customer hindi kukuha ng gallons, kukunin nya liters.

“Yung uncle ko pag-umuwi eh ubos na. Ang tawag dyan van salesman. Kasi everyday nasa van and then selling. Hindi ibig sabihin mahirap, ayaw mo na gawin, kasi yung muriatic talaga nakakasira ng bahay. Yung mga window namin, lahat kinakalawang noon. I didn't know how many hardware stores we had before, in Pasay and Manila.

“Right now, our CL products are available in supermarkets. It’s been 55 years na ‘no? Our customers, they've been our customers ever since. So you can say rapport din also. Sanay na kumukuha sa amin. This is very important.

“Then we also sold Glacial acetic acid because I had a friend near Mayfield Theatre. Katabi nya was a photo supply. We were talking about it and sabi nya, ‘Malakas kami sa acetic acid.’ So I inquired about it. Glacial was used pang hugas ng photo. I discovered another product. We called it Glacial acetic acid, but that's a generic name. We were selling it in bulk, no brand name.

“And then, not only that, I also made lighter fluid for lighter. Hindi siya gas, parang liquid ah. The brand was Century. Ang lighter fluid is not only for the lighter eh. You can also use lighter fluid to clean mga watches.

“I also made sulfanilamide powder. Kasi I saw United Lab in Divisoria, they were selling it very fast. Sulfanilamide is kung may sugat ka, you put sulfanilamide powder. I sold it in a sachet kasi I repacked it. We even produced vitamin C, ascorbic acid. I could not buy a big machine, so ang bili ko yung machine na for testing lang ba.

“Then we expanded. I told my brother Felix, my fourth brother, that we should expand into importation. You know, my brother Felix was also very good in marketing although his strength was really in the numbers. He was always using a calculator. He would tell kung pwede ito offer or not. We were competing with Terumo in disposable syringes. We were even about to put up a plant here. Kasi the Japanese, they came here almost every month from Japan.

“We were selling very big. I had to travel a lot with my brother. That business also lasted a long time. And not only medical supplies. We also had bandages. I got them from China, they were already packed when we imported them.

“We also started with baby products in 1982. We decided to enter baby products because these were already being sold in drugstores and department stores. For the baby products, I contacted a Taiwanese company, and that was how we got Farlin baby products. Cimar was the one that brought Farlin to the Philippines. We started Farlin in 1982.

“Farlin had baby products and baby bottles. My brother, Felix, was also in concerts and entertainment business at that time, so we were able to get some celebrities to advertise it and even had Farlin songs.

“Farlin was a Taiwanese brand, but it was not really selling in Taiwan. They were selling in Europe, Saudi and other markets. They also sold in Indonesia and Thailand. Farlin stayed with us for around 40 years. Eventually, nawala na. It lasted around 40 years. After Farlin, pinalitan namin, Nurture na. Nurture feeding bottles started around 2022, but baby wipes ng Nurture, mga 2006.

“We also sold plaster, plastic strips. We called the brand Medicross. Parang band-aid naman, iba naman. The MediCross brand is still there, but Povidone Iodine na lang.

“A lot of our products competed with both international and local brands. Mga kalaban namin mga international, mga local din eh. Before, we also had a few local competitors, but isa-isa nawawala eh. You know why? Wala na silang successor.

“We also had Koyopas, which competed in the same category as Salonpas. I was discussing this with my Japanese supplier in Hong Kong. Sabi niya, ‘Ko San, I like to have Salonpas.’ We came up with Koyopas. We even advertised it na may Tarzan dati.”

A good product may still struggle if consumers are unfamiliar with it, especially in markets where many alternatives compete for attention. Advertising and strong retail visibility help a brand become familiar enough to enter the customer’s consideration when it is time to buy.

Brand investment creates value beyond immediate sales. As awareness grows, a company may find it easier to introduce new products and compete without relying entirely on lower prices. A recognized name can become an asset because customers begin to associate it with a certain level of familiarity.

Brand building should be viewed as a long-term investment rather than simply an advertising expense. The objective is not only to generate one purchase, but to create enough recognition and recall that customers repeatedly choose the brand over time.

Ko treated brand building as a combination of product visibility and distribution. With Zim, he first made the product easier to try through slightly lower pricing and promotions such as free items. This was strategic because an unfamiliar household brand competing against larger companies needed to overcome the consumer’s natural preference for names they already knew.

He then invested in repetition. Ko understood that consumers often need to encounter a brand several times before remembering it. His use of billboards was practical for this reason. Ko also reinforced advertising with retail visibility. His attention to supermarket gondolas shows that he did not assume mass advertising alone would be enough. By supporting Zim with prominent displays, he linked brand awareness outside the store with the actual buying decision inside it.

Another part of his strategy was to extend Zim beyond a single cleanser. Glass cleaner, scouring pads, Sosa, detergent and dishwashing products allowed the same brand name to appear across several household needs.

Once consumers recognized Zim, each additional product could benefit from the familiarity already created by the original brand. In effect, Ko was trying to make the advertising investment work across a broader product family rather than spending separately to establish a completely new name every time.

“Muriatic acid was for mga mas mahirap tanggalin na dumi,” Ko says “Kaya nga, liquid na eh. At that time, someone had a cleanser product na. It was an American brand. So sabi ko, puwede tayong gumawa din. When I was in Hong Kong, a saw a brand called Vim, that gave me an idea about Zim, I named it Zim because it was like Zonrox, so we introduced it in 1984. That’s how we developed Zim.

“When we had Zim Cleanser, we added a glass cleaner. We also had a scouring pad and Zim Sosa para sa barado. These were additional products under the brand.

“Zim did okay because people came to know the product. In marketing, you have to price a little bit lower and then offer promotions. Free this, free that. There's a promo, something like that. At least kasi bibili ka nito, may promo ito.

“We also used billboards for Zim Cleanser around 1996. Advertising was important para makikita ng tao eh. You can put a commercial or a billboard. Television is better, but mas expensive. With a billboard, eh, kung natraffic, nakikita ng tao nasa bus. Palagi nakikita yan. Eventually, people remember the brand. Pag pupunta supermarket, ah ito nakita ko eh.

“For Zim, we also had short advertisements. At that time, nagkaron kami ng Zim powder detergent and powder washing. Si Arnel Ignacio ang model. We had powder detergent and dishwashing products, but these were different products under Zim.

“Kasi syempre medyo competitive na masyado with multinationals. Still, we knew that we had to spend something on advertising. No matter what kahit na spend a few pesos kesa walang-wala. Yung product mo pagkalabas, hindi na kilala ng tao diba? My brother Felix had connections in media and entertainment, so kahit papaano may mga kilala siya sa mga ganyan.

“The reason for advertising was that when the product became known, the brand itself became more valuable. Mahalaga yung brand eh. Brand name yan eh.

“And advertising worked. Proven yan. If you advertise a product, at least may impact. Sometimes sa mga supermarket, we also had selected gondolas. Kasi I was the one who was checking the gondolas eh. Yung gondola display. Marami kasing klase yan eh, it's either company-owned or store-owned eh na gondolas eh, diba? Kaya in a way makikilala rin, diba? Branded, kasi kailangan.

“Today, Zim is still one of the brands. We also have CL products. Alcohol meron pa rin ‘no, rubbing alcohol. And then there's Nurture na. Before the pandemic, we also made CL alcohol. Siya alcohol, kaya nandiyan din.”

Independence can be an important part of becoming a successful entrepreneur. Family connections, experience and resources can provide a useful foundation, but building something of your own allows an entrepreneur to develop confidence and a track record that are truly his or her own.

Building your own enterprise can also encourage greater ownership and discipline. Because the entrepreneur is personally responsible for the capital and survival of the business, there is often a stronger incentive to control costs and continuously look for opportunities.

Ko could have taken the easier route of joining the family business that was already established by his father. Instead, he deliberately created distance from it. This independence forced him to operate with constraints with roughly ₱5,000 he received from his father. Rather than starting with the infrastructure of an established company, he and Marciano had to build their operations around the resources they could afford.

By preserving the record and later displaying it in his office, he turned the small amount of starting capital into a personal reminder of the difficulty of the early years. Ko’s relationship with his father also influenced him in a less obvious way. He developed a different business personality from his father. He became more assertive and more willing to establish his own boundaries.

“My father gave me around P5,000. This is what he gave me because if I ever wanted to get money from my father, it was written in a spiral notebook. Kaya tinanggal ko yun sa spiral notebook niya and kept it.

“Dati kasi, my father would keep it a spiral notebook to record advances. Susulatin ko, ‘Pa, I'm going to get a few hundred.’ Bili akong bote eh. Magkano kuha mo? Uh, P600, ganyan ‘no. Sulat niya and date. And lahat ng mga uncle ko tumitingin.

“Nasa office sila eh, kaya I found it hindi maganda eh. Kaya sabi ko until now, I have the paper showing what I got from my father. Kaya this paper, I keep it in my drawer. I promised that once I had my own office, I would put this up sa likod ng opisina para I will remember eh, gano kahirap yan.

“Kaya yung napunta yung mga foreigners, mga Hapon sa office ko. Sabi nila ‘Ko San, what is this? What is this P5,000-something?’ If I'm going to tell you, it's the hardship and tears. Then I talked to them about it.

“My father knew I was doing the galenicals. You know how small my laboratory was before, sa tabi lang ng bahay namin? Ganyan, ganyan lang, dalawang lamesa, laboratory na.

“At that time, I didn't want naman to get involved with my father’s business because they were already there with my uncles eh. I wanted to make something of my own. I was with my brother, especially my second brother, Marciano, lang. We just tried to build our own business.

“For me, it was also about luck. Doing anything is, swerte ka ba o hindi? That's my belief. No matter how hard you work, masipag ka, kung walang luck, wala. That's my belief.

“My father never told me what to do. Never. If my father were still alive, he would probably say, ‘Why? You have to do your own.’ It’s true. My father was different. He could be a saint. Masyadong bait. Sobrang bait. Kaya kahit nate-take advantage siya, ganyan pa rin siya. My mother died early. I was around 33 when she died. My father was already a widower after that.

“My father never asked me about these things like my business. Wala. He never asked. What did I learn from my father? In some ways, I learned what I did not want to become.

“When I compare myself with my father, my father talagang sobrang bait. Me, hindi akong kasing bait na ganyan. Before talagang salbahe ako. But my father taught me, huwag kang masyadong puro-away, pura ganyan. This is what my father told me.

“My father was also very religious. Me naman, not as much, but I pray naman. I also go to the temple eh. My father told me not to go to the temple because if I'm a Catholic, I should be a pure Catholic.

“Another difference is that, for me, mas mahal niya noon yung parents niya, and then yung brother, sister niya kaysa amin and family namin. That's what I could see before. Compared to me, hindi ako ganyan. As for similarities between me and my father, wala. I don't think we were very similar.”

Family relationships should not replace proper business structure. Trust keeps the family together, while boundaries help protect the business. When both are present, family members are more likely to work together without allowing money or succession issues to create unnecessary conflict.

In a family business, trust is essential because relatives often work together based on long-standing personal relationships. This familiarity can make cooperation easier, but it can also create problems when business decisions, money and ownership are handled informally.

Clear boundaries help separate family relationships from business responsibilities. Written agreements and ownership rules can reduce misunderstandings and prevent personal disagreements from damaging the company.

Ko understood trust very well in dealing with outsiders, but learned the importance of boundaries more painfully inside the family business. With suppliers, he deliberately treated relationships as partnerships. He believed that reputation and the ability to deal well with people could open doors that money alone could not.

Inside the family business, Ko’s experience reveals one of the structural weaknesses common to family-owned enterprises which is the tendency to treat ownership as an extension of kinship. This arrangement may work while interests remain aligned, but it can become fragile once questions arise over control and the role of the next generation.

Written agreements do more than document ownership. They force family members to clarify who has authority, what each person is entitled to and how decisions are made. Ko believes that the earlier a family defines the rules, the less likely disagreements over money and control will damage family relationships.

Formalizing business relationships, therefore, is not necessarily an act of distrust. It can actually protect personal relationships from disputes over money.

“In business, you have to work hard, and then you have to know how to deal with people,” Ko says. “You have to know how to talk to your suppliers and treat them as partners. Very important because your supplier can help you. You cannot do it alone if you don't have partners, especially suppliers. They are the ones who can help you, even with the product itself and how much they're going to give it to you. Importante.

“And then the business itself right now, you have to make it very practical na. Not like what I was doing before. So many products, parang chopsuey na ang labas eh. It's not nice na eh. Before pwede pa. Right now, traffic dito, traffic dyan. It's not appropriate na to do this kind of business.

“You can get something that has very big volume. One or two products only, but with big volume that you can sell here. Or you can tie up with a foreign supplier. Salesmanship is very important eh. It's not only about having money. Even if you have money but you have no contacts, useless din eh.

“So importante is how you deal with foreigners. Kasi foreigners believe in you or not, dyan nakikita eh. Who are you? They will know. They can choose whom they want to deal with. But if they know that you are a good person, talagang ano yan. Kahit ano, they give it to you eh. And then they refer everything pa bibigay sa iyo eh. That's very important.

“Another lesson is to be careful, even with your siblings. When we started the business, I also thought about my siblings. Parang for me that time I said, if you can share with them, masaya. But when it comes to money, sometimes it can change some personalities, so put everything in writing every time, para walang masira.

“As for money, money is just there for a short while lang. Once you close your eyes, money will be gone also, everything. So don't make money the only thing. Kahit na ano pwede, basta it will make you happy. For me, not the money.

“What makes me happy is having good friends and talking to friends. You can have many friends, but you have to choose. May mga friends, they want to take advantage of you. But your real friends, you can count them on your fingers only. You don't need so many friends. At least that's the best. Have coffee with them, talk about nice things. To me, that’s happiness.

“Most of my close friends have been my friends for more than 40 years. We're closer than brothers. I have a friend who's in the coffee business. Kung nasaan ang mga brands niya, nakikita ko sa Makati, I call him. ‘Pare, you have a machine here. Your coffee ah. Please ask them to make coffee for me.’ So kahit saan ako pumunta, kung nandiyan lang yung tindahan, they make coffee for me for free. It's nice. That's happiness. That is very important.

“Family is also important. Before, I was too busy with the business, and doon ako nagkukulang din sa family ko din. It's true. Dennis, my son, was with me in the company. Sometimes when he has a problem, he would come to me. I wanted to help solve it, but other partners would tell me, ‘That's your son. Huwag daw akong involved.’ Kasi he had problems with my partners. Sometimes, my son would blame me and ask why I didn't help him. But he could not understand na, ‘Huwag ako makialam.’ I wanted to get involved because any parent, any father, minamahal niya anak niya. A father or a parent, hindi talaga sinisira anak niya. Minamahal niya anak niya. Pero how can he understand that?”

Henry Ong, RFP, is an entrepreneur, financial planning advocate and business advisor. Email Henry for business advice [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @henryong888