Biography & Early Wealth Journey

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Today, he breeds crocodiles and has 23,000 of them. He's also found better uses for his crocs than just having them eat the chickens. Their skins are sold to luxury brands including LVMH and their meat is in a number of food products, including Hungarian sausages and sisig, a popular Filipino dish. He sells the crocodile food products under the brand name Dundee, in tribute to the 1986 movie Crocodile Dundee.

Belo has two crocodile farms, a 24.7 acre one for breeding and one that is seven times larger. He now has about 800,000 chickens and 5,000 hogs and sells 2,000 to 3,000 crocodile skins annually for $200 to $250 each. That's $500,000 a year on the low end. The price of croc skin has actually dropped recently due to oversupply causing less demand for luxury products using the reptile skin. Chinese consumers make up half of the global demand for high-end handbags. Lately, there has been less demand for these bags.

Primary Income Streams & Multi-Million Contracts

Belo studied engineering at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila. In the evenings, he worked at a construction supply company of which his father was partial owner. He opened his first store in a tiny space in 1977. Today, Wilcon Depot is the leading retailer in the home improvement market in the Philippines. Belo handed the reigns of the company over to his daughter Lorraine in 2016, but he still goes to the office five days a week, overseeing the business as chairman emeritus. This gives him more time to relax and to pursue his crocodile farming business.

Between Wilcon and the crocodile farming Belo has become a billionaire with a net worth of $1 billion. Shares of Wilcon have risen 41% this year. Wilcon sells everything from plumbing fixtures to faucets, to tiles. It expects to have 65 stores next year and 100 by 2025.

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