Rise to the Top feature story: Family Gonçalves from Mangusa Supermarkets

This issue’s “Rise to the Top” feature story is about the family that founded Mangusa Supermarkets. Curacao Business magazine had the honor of speaking with Belmira Sousa de Lira, the matriarch of the family and the woman who worked behind the scenes in genesis of the Mangusa supermarkets that we know so well today. However, the story would not be complete without the insight and wisdom of Francisco Lira do Estreito, Jr., the eldest child in the family and the man behind the expansion of Mangusa Supermarkets who, along with his three brothers and sister, brought the company to where it is today.

TEXT HEATHER DE PAULO

HISTORY IN THE MAKING
Mrs. Sousa de Lira recounts the very beginning — the many hours of hard work, the challenges they faced and how they overcame them with a devout faith in God.

Curacao Business Magazine (CBM): What is the history of how the Mangusa supermarkets got started?
Belmira Sousa de Lira (BSL): We come from a plantation in Madeira and always worked on the land. In 1958, my husband, Francisco Gonçalves, went to Curaçao to look for the opportunity to buy land and find work. I stayed behind in Madeira with my eldest son, Francisco Jr., the only child I had at the time. Six years later, my husband returned to Madeira and in 1966, the three of us moved to Curaçao. When we returned, Francisco, Sr. bought some land in the Seru Grandi area and we worked on it. I watered the plants and he took care of the planting, harvesting and bringing the vegetables to the grocery store and market. When Francisco Jr., was nine years old, he worked helping his father while he was going to school. It was at this time that Francisco Sr. started to suffer with bronchitis. Since he was not very healthy, Francisco Jr. and I worked together with him on the land to lighten his workload. When Francisco Jr. was 14 years old, the friar at the Dutch school he attended said he was eligible to continue his education for another four years. However, since his father was ill, it was decided that he would discontinue school and focus on working with the family business.

We opened our first store in 1973. It was a small toko near the Janwe church called Maria Teresa. My husband supplied the store with produce from our land and supplemented the rest of what was needed with produce from the floating market. My son would work in the store and I would take care of the cooking and housework.

After a while we were looking for another location, but Francisco Jr. didn’t like many of the properties he saw. He finally found what he was looking for on Cascoraweg and in 1977, we opened Toko Mangusa there. It was convenient for us because we lived behind the store. We did well at this location, so we kept growing, building it up slowly. In 1984 we had our first expansion and Toko Mangusa became Mangusa Minimarket. Five years later, in 1989, we went even bigger and the store became Mangusa Supermarket. Later on, Francisco Jr. took a look at some other land and made an offer to the owners. We then bought four more lots in the same area. On November 4, 1996, Mangusa Rio Canario was born. People kept asking us to get bigger, bigger and bigger! After this, I felt that I could not go bigger anymore!

However, Francisco Jr. had other plans and on November 14, 2011, the Mangusa Hypermarket on Cascoraweg opened its doors.

CBM: How many children do you have? How many are working in the stores?
BSL: I have five children – Francisco Jr, who is eight years older than the next child, Jose. After Jose came Paolo, Anita and Gilberto, all two years apart. All of the children stayed working in the business, plus one niece is working with us too. They all worked while they went to school; they all wanted to work and help. Also, two grandchildren work in the stores part time while they are in college and the younger grandchildren come in to help out on the weekends.

CBM: All businesses experiences challenges. How did you overcome those challenges over the years?
BSL: I’ve been working since I was a little girl in Madeira, so I’m used to hard work. When we were expanding our store, I had to juggle being a housewife, a mother to small children and also helping my husband in the business. We had it tough during those times. There weren’t any disposable diapers then – only cloth diapers! Some days we would have only one loaf of bread, but we always had plenty of good quality vegetables and papaya that my husband grew on our plantation at Seru Grandi. At one point, my husband planted banana trees and a storm came and broke them all. Rather than getting discouraged, he chose different crops and planted chard, sweet potatoes and other vegetables instead.

One day my husband became very ill with his bronchitis and went to Colombia to see a doctor. From there, he went to Madeira and I stayed behind on Curaçao with our children. After five months on Madeira, they didn’t treat him because we didn’t have the money to treat his ailment. At this point, Francisco Sr. asked us to come to Madeira. I went with all of the children except Francisco Jr. who stayed behind to take care of the business. Francisco Sr. wanted to stay in Madeira, so I returned to Curaçao with the children. We later received news that he died from the bronchitis. He always said he would die in Madeira. He was a patriotic person and loved his country!

What kept us going during difficult times like these is hard work and our faith — we are Catholic. I always taught my children good morals, which I believe formed their base. A priest where I used to go to church a long time ago told me, don’t forget to go to church. We believe in God, so we accept everything that comes our way. We keep going and pray.

CBM: What do you think was the key to your success over the years?
BSL: When we stared with the minimarket at Janwe, I never thought we would end up with such a big supermarket! What helped us is that we had people who knew us and trusted us in the community. For example, the bank would lend us money because they knew we would pay.

CBM: Do you have any advice for people starting their own business?
BSL: Work hard and God will give you compensation later.

CBM: Do you have anything else to add?
BSL: When the business was smaller, the workers were family. The family knew that it took hard work to make a business successful. Nowadays, people seem to have forgotten what it’s like to work hard for what you earn. In the past, people struggled to get somewhere. We cannot forget that what you gain is what you put into something, in everything in life. People have to help themselves.

THE LEGACY CONTINUES
Mr. Francisco Lira do Estreito, Jr. gave a few minutes of his precious time to tell his side of the story. He is a man of humility, with a love of family, and a very keen businessman. His success is based on hard work, experience and instinct. His words provide insight in to what it takes to make a dream a reality.

CBM: Your mother gave us a very insightful story of how the Mangusa supermarkets started. How did you start working in the business?
Francisco Lira do Estrito Jr. (FLDE): I started working in the kunuku when I was eight years old and at the time, my father paid me 10 guilders a week. Later as I got older, I earned 100 guilders a month. I love working the land; I miss it sometimes.

CBM: How did the stores get the name Mangusa?
FLDE: The address of the first store on Cascoraweg was Seru Mangusa #1, so it was the first house in the area. My father told a good friend that he didn’t know what to call the store. At the time, the stores were named after saints, for example, Maria Teresa. The friend said that since the street is Seru Mangusa and the house is the first, call it Toko Mangusa. From there, it caught on and grew. It’s actually pronounced man-goo-SAH. We are happy that this friend gave us the idea; we like the name because it’s a krioyo name — it’s something from the island and the culture of Curaçao.

CBM: What has been your motivation over the years to keep expanding?
FLDE: The clients kept telling us the store was too small, to make it bigger, so we kept getting bigger. In the end, we have a big family, hopi boka pa kome (a lot of mouths to feed). The main goal was for everyone in the family to have a job to provide for his or her children and for everyone to have a secure future.

CBM: What prompted you to open the Mangusa Hypermarket?
FLDE: Our customers are always telling us to go bigger and they were complaining that the original Mangusa Supermarket was too small. If you make it double the size, they still say it’s too small, so we decided to make the hypermarket a size that we can live with for more than 10-20 years the first time around. Now people are telling me Rio Canario is too small, but we can’t get bigger in that location.

CBM: How long were you running the business before you started paying yourself at each store? How did you get through those first years?
FLDE: It takes time with every business; you need time to recover your debt. When we first started, on Cascoraweg, we bought everything local from agents on Curaçao. The profit was so low that the accountant would tell me that I had to carry less stock, only enough for one month at a time. After a very tough first year, I decided to import my own goods to increase the profit margin and that helped improve the profits considerably. Due to the reputation that Mangusa had for paying its debt on time, we were able to get the financial support we needed. Soon after, because of our good reputation, others started coming to us and offering us opportunities. This helped me greatly to bring the business to a different level.

Our good relationship with Maduro and Curiel’s Bank helped us open the Rio Canario store. The Rio Canario store is now 18 years old and was our best investment in our business history. I’m not saying more so than the hypermarket because we still need to give that a little time.

CBM: How did you overcome obstacles on the way?
FLDE: It was very difficult when my father died; it was tough, very tough for me. Our mother supported us and encouraged us to keep going for our goals. Her values that she always taught us — to keep going and that whatever we do, we have to give it our best — contributed to our success. She taught us that with hard work and dedication, you can surpass all obstacles. Life isn’t always easy; you will always have ups and downs. However, if you focus on your main goal, you can accomplish anything. You have to dedicate a lot of time to your business if you want to be successful. Some people think when they make a profit, it will all be for their pocket, but you have to continually be innovative and invest in your business.

CBM: The Mangusa stores started small, as a toko, and now have become huge with the Hypermarket. What do you find is the biggest difference in management style with the growth of the company?
FLDE: When a business becomes bigger, you need to trust other people who are not your family; you need to hire good managers who you can trust and who can do the job to maintain control over what’s happening. However, don’t forget, you still need to be there. You can’t leave the entire responsibility of running the business to others – you still have to maintain control of everything yourself. Some people leave the business in the hands of the supervisors. There is a saying in Spanish: el ojo del amo, engorda el caballo, literally translated as, “the eye of the owner fattens the horse.” What this means is, if the employees see that the owner is around keeping an eye on what’s happening, it makes a difference. You need to be there.

CBM: How do you balance home life with work?
FLDE: Success in a business is when your wife and family understand how the business runs. If your family understands that, you can be successful. I am lucky because my wife’s family owned Toko Portugal, so she understands that it’s a tough business. If you have a wife who doesn’t understand, it becomes much more difficult. The supermarket business is one of the toughest businesses in the world. You need to work hard, you need to dedicate your time completely to the business and, of course, you need time for your family. The supermarket business is like a slavery business. Sometimes my wife tells me to take my bed to the office! You need to like what you do and you need a good family that understands the commitment it takes.

CBM: Did you have a mentor?
FLDE: My father and mother educated me well on how to do business. However, I have to say my instincts are what got me to where I am today. I started young in this business, at 15, and I learned a lot through on-the-job training. I make mistakes and I learn from my mistakes. You always need to be honest with yourself; if you are honest and you do things well, everything will go well.

CBM: What advice would you give to someone starting his/her own business?
FLDE: First and foremost, the key to success is that you have to be willing to work hard and dedicate yourself to your business. Beyond that, I have a four pillar theory: 1) You need a good location 2) You need a good variety and assortment of products 3) You have to maintain good prices 4) You have to provide good service. These are my keys to success in business.

CBM: Do you have anything else to add?
FLDE: My advice to people who are starting a business is that you have to dedicate a lot of time to the business and work hard, so you need to have a passion for what you are doing. A lot of people think when you open a business everything comes easy and that you start making a profit right away, however, you have to work a long time before you see profit. Business success comes with hard work, dedication and the willingness to work long hours – you can’t expect to always be home at 6:00pm. Customer satisfaction is also very important. You want to be sure the customers are satisfied and will keep coming back – you want to gain customer loyalty. You need to hear all the complaints. From the complaints you can learn what you need to change in your business to make it better.