After a successful movie career in the
30’s and 40’s, Mila del Sol wanted to
give back to the fans who made her
Famous. She thought the best way to
do this was by getting into a business
which would give people jobs. So, in
1965, after studying the janitorial
industry in the United States, Mila del
Sol, Jesus “Sonny” Tambunting, her
eldest son and a former janitor in the
United States, and his wife, Teresita
Suarez Tambunting, together with
some of their relatives, put up
Superior Maintenance Services, Inc. As janitorial services weren’t very
common during that time, it served as
a pioneer in the Philippine manpower
outsourcing industry. It was Mila del
Sol’s way of saying thank you to the
many fans who supported her during
her career.
-The First Office and the First Client
Mila rented the house of the late
Senator Jose Diokno along Roxas
Boulevard to serve as the first office of
SMS as well as a home for her family. They used the house’s living room as
the office and the garage as the
training area for janitors. Mila was
in charge of Marketing. Sonny was in
charge of operations and training the
janitors, and Terry acted as the
secretary. The company’s first client
was Avellana & Associates, an
advertsiing company located where
the US Embassy is today. SMS used
their space in order to train their first
janitors
- Mila del Sol, The Sales Lady
MIla del Sol was the very first sales
lady of SMS. When she was first trying
to market the company’s services to
potential clients, she noticed no one
was really paying attention to her. Tired of being turned down, she
thought of hoe companies would
respond to her calls if she inctroduced
herself with her screen name, Mila del
Sol, instead of how she had been
doping it by using her real name, Clarita
Rivera. Instantly, after she made the
shift, companies started wondering
what king of business proposal this
big movie star had to offer them.
“What did she know about business?”,
they wondered. With her sales callls
gaining interest, Mila del Sol started
presenting in the board rooms of
companies like Philippin Airlines. Using her wits as ab actress,
Mila was able to convince many
companies to give SMS a shot.
-From Mother to Son
In 1974, Mila del Sol passed the
leadership of the company to her
eldest son and the company co-founder,
Sonny Tambunting. Under his
leadership, SMS continued to grow,
gaining the trust of more clients and
putting more people to work, and by
1982, the company had more than
2,000 employees.
-SMS serves the biggest
US Military Bases in the world
SMS became a service provider for
the biggest US military bases in the
world at that time, Subic Naval Base
(1971) and Clark Air Base (1973). SMS took care of the grass cutting
and maintenance needs of these
bases. With such a big area to take
care of, SMS invested heavily in
top-of-the-line equipment to serve
these bases. The company earned
the trust and confidence of the
American government for its work. SMS served Clark Air Base for almost
20 years.
-The Early Days of SMS
When SMS started, it was Sonny
Tambunting himself who was giving
the training to a small group of 3
janitors. Since the company didn’t
own a phone. Terry Tambunting
would go to neighboring nightclub to
borrow a phone in order to call up
clients. Whenever there would jobs for
general cleaning. Terry would prepare
the food for the janitors and when
necessary, together with other
members of the family, help in the
actual cleaning of the client’s
premises. The company started out by
cleaning nightclubs. Some of its first
big account include SSS, SGV & Co.,
Far East bank, Traders Royal Bank,
Lyceum of the Philippines, and
Philippine Airlines, Central Bank of the
Philippines, Philippine National Bank
and SGV & Co. started with SMS in the
1960’s and remains with it until today.
