In 2011, fragrance manufacturer Joel Cruz, celebrated the 10th anniversary of his business with

an audience of 87,000 at the parking lot of the Mall of Asia. His endorsers—including Gary
Valenciano, Charice, John Lloyd Cruz, Erich Gonzalez, Pauleen Luna—graced the show. To top it
all, the president and CEO of Aficionado Germany Perfumes ascended onstage on a hydraulic
lift.

Customers, who bought Aficionado worth P250, received a ticket for general patronage seating.
“That’s how we were able to get the audience,” says Cruz. His multi-million peso business is
arguably the biggest in the mass market. The name, Aficionado Germany, plays to the colonial
mentality of the Filipino who thinks that anything foreign is superior. Cruz says the fragrance
oils, the most expensive ingredient, are imported from Germany because they linger for an
average of eight hours. Catering to the aspirational mass market—mostly young, middle class
males, the scents are variations of popular upscale brands. Packaged in generic names, the most
saleable scent, F2, smells like Polo Sport, while another top seller F4 suggests Hugo Boss. His
brand competes with Prescripto and ZenZest. In the celebrity fragrances category, Aficionado
Germany challenges Bench.

The long-haired entrepreneur is a media darling for his ebullience. “I don’t have secrets. I’m the
kind of person who tells everything,” says Cruz. Not quite. Cruz is coy when pressed about the
profitability of his business. Aficionado Germany Perfumes has 469 stores, more than half of
which are franchises. The strategy is to sell in kiosks in the corridors of high foot traffic areas in
the malls. The brand awareness is created through guerrilla style marketing and billboards.
Although the raw materials are from Germany, production costs are lower as they are produced
in a plant in Meycauayan, Bulacan. The packaging comes from China and Korea. Prices range
from P17 for a 30 ml cologne spray to P288 for a celebrity scent.

Audited Cruz reveals the business is experiencing double-digit growth. “The franchise
helps us a lot. It’s like having foster parents to take care of your children if you can’t
handle them yourself. They are dedicated to supervise the businesses. All the franchisees
are happy. They started with one store and some now own 22 stores. It shows it’s
profitable,” he explains. Cruz receives 8 percent from royalties and convinces suppliers to
keep a lid on their prices. “We have to make the product affordable. We are helping
Filipinos patronize local products, and we promote good grooming. We get the business
by volume.”
Joel Cruz in the company of a growing family BY BECKY GARCIA SEPTEMBER 22,
2018 HOME / LIFESTYLE / LIFESTYLE COLUMNIST / JOEL CRUZ IN THE
COMPANY OF A GROWING FAMILY Joel Cruz in the company of a growing family
1 BECKY GARCIA Aficionado Perfume President and CEO Joel Cruz has fostered his
company to remarkable growth with stores presence in major malls, institutional accounts
and international distribution in twenty countries. The company celebrated its 18 years in
the fragrance manufacturing and retail earlier this month

We were setting an example. We were serving the underserved. We knew that eventually, their
lives will change for the better. -Joel Cruz \
OUTSTANDING CATEGORY

JOEL SANTOS CRUZ

PRESIDENT & CEO

We were setting an example. We were serving the underserved. We knew that eventually,
their lives will change for the better.

Aficionado Germany PerfumeCONSUMER GOODS1774 Instruccion St. Cor. N.S.

Amoranto Ave., Samploc, Manila, Philippines 1774(632) 740 7953
www.aficionado.com.ph

Doctor-to-be-turned-entrepreneur Joel S. Cruz, or his monicker “The Lord of Scents”, is

a graduate of the UST in 1986 with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Psychology of a
pre-medicine course to become a doctor. Instead, he decided to engage in the apparel
business to the dismay of his parents. He is a full-blooded Thomasian through and
through and was a student leader in his high school days. His decision to pursue business
inspired by his parents, who were both business people, lead him to achieve phenomenal
success in the Philippine fragrance industry with his brand Aficionado Germany Perfume
which dominates the specialty fragrance retail market and forges ahead to burst into the
international business scene.

The precursor company to Central Affirmative Co. Inc. was Joel Cruz Enterprises, Inc. This was an
apparel sub-contracting company that catered to major departments stores in the Philippines
namely, Rustan’s, SM Shoemart, Robinson’s, Anson’s and Syvel’s department stores. The
business was doing well until a setback was encountered with the 1997 Asian Crisis affecting the
business. Department stores were sourcing their apparel merchandise from China and Thailand
causing a glut in the supply of garments in the Philippines. The company was forced to downsize
its garment production operations. Despite this challenging situation, Joel was determined to
move ahead with other opportunities to engage in business bringing along the learning he
gained from the creative phase to manufacturing and production of products to marketing. It
was both serendipity and fate that Joel met a business mentor from Henkel Company of
Germany who taught him the ropes of the fragrance industry and perfume making. This was the
brand story of Aficionado Germany Perfume. The company was formerly named Affirmative that
became popular among business networks with the acronym “AF”. This was the spin-off of the
brand name “aficionado” which was the closest word to the initials “AF”. Aficionado is a Spanish
word which means fanatic or fan, loyal or devotee. The word “Germany Perfume” was added
since most fragrance oils come from suppliers from Munich, Germany; the biggest source of
fragrance raw materials in the world even though France is the biggest manufacturer of
perfumes.

OUTSTANDING CATEGORY

JOEL SANTOS CRUZ

PRESIDENT & CEO

We were setting an example. We were serving the underserved. We knew that eventually,
their lives will change for the better.

Aficionado Germany PerfumeCONSUMER GOODS1774 Instruccion St. Cor. N.S.

Amoranto Ave., Samploc, Manila, Philippines 1774(632) 740 7953
www.aficionado.com.ph

Doctor-to-be-turned-entrepreneur Joel S. Cruz, or his monicker “The Lord of Scents”, is

a graduate of the UST in 1986 with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Psychology of a
pre-medicine course to become a doctor. Instead, he decided to engage in the apparel
business to the dismay of his parents. He is a full-blooded Thomasian through and
through and was a student leader in his high school days. His decision to pursue business
inspired by his parents, who were both business people, lead him to achieve phenomenal
success in the Philippine fragrance industry with his brand Aficionado Germany Perfume
which dominates the specialty fragrance retail market and forges ahead to burst into the
international business scene.

The precursor company to Central Affirmative Co. Inc. was Joel Cruz Enterprises, Inc.
This was an apparel sub-contracting company that catered to major departments stores in
the Philippines namely, Rustan’s, SM Shoemart, Robinson’s, Anson’s and Syvel’s
department stores. The business was doing well until a setback was encountered with the
1997 Asian Crisis affecting the business. Department stores were sourcing their apparel
merchandise from China and Thailand causing a glut in the supply of garments in the
Philippines. The company was forced to downsize its garment production operations.
Despite this challenging situation, Joel was determined to move ahead with other
opportunities to engage in business bringing along the learning he gained from the
creative phase to manufacturing and production of products to marketing.

This was the start of the Aficionado Germany Perfume business that offered the mass market
quality products at very affordable product prices. The market was fertile for proudly Philippine
made products when Filipino consumer’s mindset then was that foreign brands and products
are of better quality. This was trail-blazing for Aficionado to be a market leader in this business
category of fragrance products. Competitors soon followed but Aficionado stood strong as it
offers value for money products to its customers. Joel has turned his business from a fledgling
one-kiosk store at the Gotesco Grand Central mall to a full flying dominant brand player in the
retail market. He has spawned his brand into 500 stores in malls, products carried and sold by
institutional accounts like Mercury Drugstore chain, 7-11, Puregold Supermarkets, Shopwise,
major Departments stores, drugstores, groceries, distributors up to tertiary accounts or the
“Sari-Sari Store”, direct dealership and international sales.

Joel diversified his business into personal and non-personal care products with the Joel
Cruz Signatures brand and maintained a sizeable apparel business with the AFSS
(Aficionado Fashion and Scents Store) clothing brand. The clothing brand is homage to
his former apparel business and an adaptation to market trends that perfume and fashion
are entwined. Joel built their own manufacturing plant after five years in operation at the
Sterling Industrial Park in Meycauayan, Bulacan north of Manila which is now GMP and
ISO 9001:2008 certified. This made the company’s core competency in manufacturing
fragrance products aside from retail. The company offers tolling or contract
manufacturing services and has equipped the factory with state of the art automated
bottling, capping and bottle washing system.
The Filipino consumers lauded the perfume brand as “Aficionado and Pambansang
Pabango” (Aficionado the National Perfume of the Philippines). Esteemed award giving
bodies have recognized the company as a formidable retail brand that has democratized
the use of perfume as an affordable luxury offering value for money products. The
company and brand is a Hall of Fame awardee by the PRA- Philippine Retailers
Association as Specialty Retailer in 2010. He was recognized by the Gawad Amerika
Awards in Hollywood, California as Outstanding Entrepreneur in the fragrance business
in 2010 and another award as Outstanding Philanthropist in 2011. He was nominated with
an Agora Awards for Marketing by the Philippine Marketing Association in 2011 & 2012
and by the MVP PLDT SME Awards in 2010 & 2011. His alma mater, UST, has
bestowed one of the highest recognitions of the university, The Outstanding Thomasian
Alumni or TOTAL Awards for entrepreneurship. He was likewise recognized by the
Club Bulakeño organization with an award for Outstanding entrepreneur in 2013. The
most recent award this year 2015 is the PFA-Philippine Franchise Association Franchise
Excellence Awards as Outstanding Franchise in the small store category given in
cooperation with the DTI-Department of Trade and Industry. As part of his Corporate
Social Responsibility efforts, he established his own foundation, the Joel S. Cruz
Aficionado Foundation, Inc. to provide for abandoned and neglected children and
teenagers.
For almost ten years, he started visiting charity institutions as part of his company’s
anniversary celebration namely the Hospicio de San Jose, Asilo de San Vicente de Paul,
Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, UP Philippine General Hospital Pediatric wards 9 & 11 and
the Missionaries of Charity Home of Joy in Tayuman, Manila. Unorthodox for an
entrepreneur, Joel was invited to join the international franchise reality TV show on
GMA-7, the “Celebrity Duets” and emerged as the 3rd season champion with the most
text votes. The one million peso prize winnings were all donated to twenty of his chosen
charity institutions.
In 2013, this led to an international publication, the Forbes Asia magazine to take notice
and recognize Joel as one of the forty eight Heroes of Philanthropy in Asia Pacific
together with three other prominent Filipinos namely, Henry Sy Sr. of the SM
Department store conglomerate, John Gokongwei Jr. of Robinsons Malls and Cebu
Pacific Airlines and Architect Felino “Jun” Palafox. With family members working for
his company, he has kept a good balance of work and family life. In 2012, he was blessed
with twin children through IVF procedure done in Moscow, Russia. The twins are named
Prince Sean and Princess Synne which means “gracious gift from God”. Growing his
family as well, another set of twins have arrived and aptly named them Prince Harry and
Prince Harvey. The former name means “ruler of the home” while the latter means
“battle worthy”. Joel is hoping and prayerful that his kids will inherit and run the reign of
his business empire when they grow up and would fervently care continuing the business
and brand.

HISTORY OF AFICIONADO Joel S. Cruz or “Joel” to his family and friends is the sixth among the
seven children of Mr. & Mrs. Dionisio Cruz. Having spent all his schooling at the University of
Santo Tomas from elementary to college and honored with Loyalty Awards, he graduated with a
Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from the University of Santo Tomas. Driven by his
passion to pursue creative undertakings and business skills, he became an entrepreneur instead
of becoming a doctor. Joel found it equally fulfilling, if not even more. With his passion for
fashion, Joel ventured into importing apparel from Hongkong and Bangkok in 1986. In 1987, he
established Joel Cruz Enterprises Inc. (apparel), manufacturing and selling apparel to leading
department stores in Metro Manila. In 1997, with the glut of apparel goods from China and
Thailand, the company saw the opportunity to switch to the perfume business. In 1999, Joel
engaged in another business venture establishing Joel Cruz Enterprise-perfumery. This was the
beginning of big things to come. Retailing is just the start of everything. On September 5, 2000,
Central Affirmative Co. Inc. was born on the process of acquiring license to distribute the
perfume brand “Affirmative” or popularly known as “AF”. In 2001. The company laboratory was
officially registered by the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD now FDA) and established as a
manufacturer and distributor of Aficionado Germany Perfume brand. In 2002, Aficionado
Boutiques were opened nationwide to reinvigorate the former apparel business. In 2006, the
company operated a 2,000 sq m plant in Sterling Industrial Park, located in Meycauayan,
Bulacan. After 5 years in business, the Aficionado brand was opened for franchising
opportunities and this catapulted the company to new heights. The Direct Dealership, Domestic
and International Distributorship, Tolling, Contract Manufacturing and Personalizing services
were established as corporate units and further spurred growth for the company. The company
supplies products to major supermarkets, drugstores and convenience stores nationwide. On
June 22, 2007, the company opened Signatures by Joel Cruz Inc. with the brand Joel Cruz
Signatures engaged in a new line of perfume and personal care products to scented home
products. The company has spawned into a family of brands: Aficionado Germany Perfume as
the leading Philippine made perfume in the market. The brand Joel Cruz Signatures offering
personal care products and beyond. On March 2010, the apparel business was rebranded to
Aficionado-Your Fashion and Scents Store and registered with the IPO in September of the same
year. The company acquiring new technology in manufacturing and implementing systems
upgrade like SAP (ERP) and an integrated supply chain is geared towards the year 2020 as a
small-medium sized company to achieving bigger success and growth. CACI has gone global
having distribution centers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE; Saudi Arabia, Iran, Japan, Ireland,
Denmark, Los Angeles, Saipan and continues to expand business in the Asian region in other
ASEAN member countries. CACI is posed to expand its business in the Philippines and globally. It
is geared towards achieving international standards with manufacturing processes towards
producing the highest quality personal care products to offer to consumers. CACI has earned
several recognitions by major award giving bodies such as the Asian Star Brand Award, The
National Shopper’s Choice Award and The Philippines’ Marketing Excellence Award, the
Philippine Retailers Association Hall of Fame Award and The 32nd Agora Awards Nomination for
Outstanding Achievement in Entrepreneurship among others. It is a clear vision that guides the
company to successfully pursue various ventures -“To be known as the leading manufacturer
and distributor of perfume, health and beauty products”.

Doctor-to-be-turned-entrepreneur Joel S. Cruz, or his monicker “The Lord of Scents”, is a

graduate of the UST in 1986 with a degree of Bachelor of Science in Psychology of a pre-
medicine course to become a doctor. Instead, he decided to engage in the apparel business to
the dismay of his parents. He is a full-blooded Thomasian through and through and was a
student leader in his high school days. His decision to pursue business inspired by his parents,
who were both business people, lead him to achieve phenomenal success in the Philippine
fragrance industry with his brand Aficionado Germany Perfume which dominates the specialty
fragrance retail market and forges ahead to burst into the international business scene. The
precursor company to Central Affirmative Co. Inc. was Joel Cruz Enterprises, Inc. This was an
apparel sub-contracting company that catered to major departments stores in the Philippines
namely, Rustan’s, SM Shoemart, Robinson’s, Anson’s and Syvel’s department stores. The
business was doing well until a setback was encountered with the 1997 Asian Crisis affecting the
business. Department stores were sourcing their apparel merchandise from China and Thailand
causing a glut in the supply of garments in the Philippines. The company was forced to downsize
its garment production operations. Despite this challenging situation, Joel was determined to
move ahead with other opportunities to engage in business bringing along the learning he
gained from the creative phase to manufacturing and production of products to marketing. It
was both serendipity and fate that Joel met a business mentor from Henkel Company of
Germany who taught him the ropes of the fragrance industry and perfume making. This was the
brand story of Aficionado Germany Perfume. The company was formerly named Affirmative that
became popular among business networks with the acronym “AF”. This was the spin-off of the
brand name “aficionado” which was the closest word to the initials “AF”. Aficionado is a Spanish
word which means fanatic or fan, loyal or devotee. The word “Germany Perfume” was added
since most fragrance oils come from suppliers from Munich, Germany; the biggest source of
fragrance raw materials in the world even though France is the biggest manufacturer of
perfumes. This was the start of the Aficionado Germany Perfume business that offered the mass
market quality products at very affordable product prices. The market was fertile for proudly
Philippine made products when Filipino consumer’s mindset then was that foreign brands and
products are of better quality. This was trail-blazing for Aficionado to be a market leader in this
business category of fragrance products. Competitors soon followed but Aficionado stood
strong as it offers value for money products to its customers. Joel has turned his business from a
fledgling one-kiosk store at the Gotesco Grand Central mall to a full flying dominant brand
player in the retail market. He has spawned his brand into 500 stores in malls, products carried
and sold by institutional accounts like Mercury Drugstore chain, 7-11, Puregold Supermarkets,
Shopwise, major Departments stores, drugstores, groceries, distributors up to tertiary accounts
or the “Sari-Sari Store”, direct dealership and international sales. Joel diversified his business
into personal and non-personal care products with the Joel Cruz Signatures brand and
maintained a sizeable apparel business with the AFSS (Aficionado Fashion and Scents Store)
clothing brand. The clothing brand is homage to his former apparel business and an adaptation
to market trends that perfume and fashion are entwined. Joel built their own manufacturing
plant after five years in operation at the Sterling Industrial Park in Meycauayan, Bulacan north of
Manila which is now GMP and ISO 9001:2008 certified. This made the company’s core
competency in manufacturing fragrance products aside from retail. The company offers tolling
or contract manufacturing services and has equipped the factory with state of the art
automated bottling, capping and bottle washing system. He has utilized the SAP Enterprise
Resource Planning and introduced the MPOS-Mobile Point of Sale at stores for a more efficient
inventory and financial management. The Filipino consumers lauded the perfume brand as
“Aficionado and Pambansang Pabango” (Aficionado the National Perfume of the Philippines).
Esteemed award giving bodies have recognized the company as a formidable retail brand that
has democratized the use of perfume as an affordable luxury offering value for money products.
The company and brand is a Hall of Fame awardee by the PRA- Philippine Retailers Association
as Specialty Retailer in 2010. He was recognized by the Gawad Amerika Awards in Hollywood,
California as Outstanding Entrepreneur in the fragrance business in 2010 and another award as
Outstanding Philanthropist in 2011. He was nominated with an Agora Awards for Marketing by
the Philippine Marketing Association in 2011 & 2012 and by the MVP PLDT SME Awards in 2010
& 2011. His alma mater, UST, has bestowed one of the highest recognitions of the university,
The Outstanding Thomasian Alumni or TOTAL Awards for entrepreneurship. He was likewise
recognized by the Club Bulakeño organization with an award for Outstanding entrepreneur in
2013. The most recent award this year 2015 is the PFA-Philippine Franchise Association
Franchise Excellence Awards as Outstanding Franchise in the small store category given in
cooperation with the DTI-Department of Trade and Industry. As part of his Corporate Social
Responsibility efforts, he established his own foundation, the Joel S. Cruz Aficionado
Foundation, Inc. to provide for abandoned and neglected children and teenagers. For almost ten
years, he started visiting charity institutions as part of his company’s anniversary celebration
namely the Hospicio de San Jose, Asilo de San Vicente de Paul, Tahanang Walang Hagdanan, UP
Philippine General Hospital Pediatric wards 9 & 11 and the Missionaries of Charity Home of Joy
in Tayuman, Manila. Unorthodox for an entrepreneur, Joel was invited to join the international
franchise reality TV show on GMA-7, the “Celebrity Duets” and emerged as the 3rd season
champion with the most text votes. The one million peso prize winnings were all donated to
twenty of his chosen charity institutions. He is a staunch supporter of the Philippine Cancer
Society as one of the ambassadors raising funds for cancer patients annually. In 2013, this led to
an international publication, the Forbes Asia magazine to take notice and recognize Joel as one
of the forty eight Heroes of Philanthropy in Asia Pacific together with three other prominent
Filipinos namely, Henry Sy Sr. of the SM Department store conglomerate, John Gokongwei Jr. of
Robinsons Malls and Cebu Pacific Airlines and Architect Felino “Jun” Palafox. With family
members working for his company, he has kept a good balance of work and family life. In 2012,
he was blessed with twin children through IVF procedure done in Moscow, Russia. The twins are
named Prince Sean and Princess Synne which means “gracious gift from God”. Growing his
family as well, another set of twins have arrived and aptly named them Prince Harry and Prince
Harvey. The former name means “ruler of the home” while the latter means “battle worthy”.
Joel is hoping and prayerful that his kids will inherit and run the reign of his business empire
when they grow up and would fervently care continuing the business and brand.

Aficionado Perfumes and Personal Care president and CEO Joel Cruz continues to lead his
company towards growth as he recently renewed his partnership with Fil-Asiatico of Taiwan,
Republic of China, as the exclusive distributor of Aficionado in the province. As it reaches the
mainstream market, the brand keeps on growing its business in the international scene where
there is a dense population of Filipinos.

TRIVIA

All of his children were conceived through in vitro fertilization by the same surrogate
mother, a Russian named Lilia, which technically means that they are all siblings.
Surrogation and being a single parent is legal in Russia
His children are Prince Sean and Princess Synne (September 2012), the second pair were
Prince Harry and Prince Harvey in October 2015, Charles and Charlotte were born in
May 2017 and Zeid was just this year.
However, the process was quite expensive as it was admitted by Joel Cruz himself. In an
interview with Tunay Na Buhay, he shared that he has undergone several processes and
interviews before he was granted to have a child. Everyone probably knows that being a
parent is a lifetime responsibility. In terms of expenses, he said, “Magaling sila. Medyo
mahal lang pero magaling sila… Well, initially, you have to give. You have to pay Php 6-
million. Yun yung pag-accept ng program and hindi sila titigil hanggang hindi ka
nagkaka-anak.”

Furthermore, “But of course, you have to pay for the extra procedures. Yung mga whatever
tests… umaabot ng Php 12-million.” And now, he has his 8th child born in St. Petersburg, Russia
last November 6.