Vivant Corporation is less than ten years old yet its rich and humble origins were built as far back as two centuries ago beginning with Viuda y Hijos de F. Escaño Incorporada, the enterprise that Don Fernando Escaño founded in 1870 which came to be known later as Hijos de F. Escaño Inc. (HDFE).

The trade in abaca was the dynamic sector in the economy of the Eastern Visayas at the time Don Fernando started out to earn his fortune as the sole proprietor of  his business until it became a family enterprise for the Escaños.

Don Fernando contracted deliveries of hemp and set up an abaca press in Malitbog so the loose hemp could be classified and baled for export. His collecting activities were focused on the southern end of Leyte or the Sogod Bay area where the Escaños combined trading in other agricultural crops, livestock, consumer products and general merchandise. With the increasing volume of cargo carried in the inter-island trade, Don Fernando saw the opportunities in the field of shipping. It was also at this time that the Escaño shipping interests began.

Don Fernando started by contracting vessels and later, operating his own sailboats. In 1892, he purchased his first steam vessel, the 249-ton Escaño and also acquired the following year a bigger ship — Felix Melliza. From these small beginnings grew what later became one of the major shipping companies of the Philippines.

With the decline of Abaca in the world market in the twentieth century, Escaño trading activities shifted to copra, sugar, and other products, but shipping remained, and grew, as a major business interest of the Escaños. For its trading activities, the company maintained stations in Baybay, Ormoc, and Maasin. With the expansion of its shipping activities, the Escaños moved the base of its operations to Cebu City in 1900 as it had become the hub of the shipping and commerce in central and southern Philippines.

In the 1920s, the family firm owned a fleet of vessels that included the venerable Luisa, Butuan, Villa de Soncillo, and Ormoc (all less than 100 gross tons each) as well as the 307-ton Agustina (built in Hong Kong in 1929) and the 452-ton F Escaño (built in Sandakan, Borneo, in 1911). It was also about this time, that the Escaños diversified into other businesses such as electricity distribution. In 1918, the Escaño and Garcia families took the helm of the Visayas Electric Company after Martin Levering, R.R. Landon and Arlington Pond started the company in 1905.

After the takeover of leadership, VECO’s generating capacity significantly climbed and services widened from north to south of Cebu Province. VECO also moved beyond its coverage and held franchises and branches in Negros and Zamboanga del Norte.

Two years after the death of the matriarch of the family, Doña Agustina, on January 12, 1926, Hijos de F. Escaño’s shipping business merged with Aboitiz and Company, which was also into shipping, to pool resources for the development of their fleets. The merger, called La Naviera Filipina, was formed in January 1928 and was touted as the biggest Cebu-based inter-island shipping company until December 1941. It had a fleet of around 17 motor vessels serving Visayas and Northern Mindanao.

The Second World War caused the temporary suspension of the business of Hijos De F. Escaňo, Inc. (HDFE). It destroyed La Naviera vessels and disrupted shipping inter-island operations on one hand, while VECO’s power houses and important assets were in dire wreck on the other.

The close of the war in 1945 saw promise of restoration upon the initiatives of the US Army alongside VECO. Power generation equipment were installed and vital infrastructure rebuilt.On December 8, 1945, VECO resumed operations and financed its expansion activities to beef up staffing, new machineries and equipment requirements to re-establish power to its pre-war levels.

As to the family’s shipping concern, it was in 1947 that local shipping companies were able to effectively resume operations when the US Army turned over to the Philippine government, as a rehabilitation measure, a fleet of FS-type vessels to be sold or chartered to commercial operators. La Naviera Filipina, however, was not reestablished and Hijos de F. Escaño Inc. and Aboitiz and Company went about rebuilding their own shipping concerns in the postwar period. By 1955, VECO normalized and opened its plants in Negros and Zamboanga while shipping continued to thrive as an important business for the Escaños which, in 1964, came to be called Escaño Lines (a section of Hijos de F. Escaño Inc.)

By 1968, the firm had nine ships one of which, Escaño II, the flagship of Escaño Lines, was the first inter-island vessel to introduce modern navigational devices and equipment. The ship comfortably ferried 650 passengers with lifestyle amenities and accommodations for those who sought leisure and modern comfort while travelling. The other vessels of the fleet at this time were Tacloban, Butuan, Fatima, Rajah Suliman, Magallanes, and Kulambugan. Ports of call, in addition to Cebu and Manila, were ports of Tacloban, Masbate, Cagayabn de Oro, Iligan, Surigao, Butuan and Gingoog. The firm also chartered out boats for various Philippine ports.

Today, Escaño Lines continues to operate in the Southern Philippines. However, the family divested its interest in the business in 1989.

As for VECO, it continues to lead the electric distribution industry. VECO currently is the 2nd largest utility in the country. In 2004, amid pioneering regulation through the EPIRA LAW, the Garcia-Escaňo family forged a shareholders’ agreement with the Aboitiz family to pave the way for the future.

In 2003, the Garcia-Escaňo family acquired 99%  of Philstar.com, a company listed in the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE). The family subsequently infused its holdings in Hijos De F. Escaňo Inc. (HDFE) and Visayan Electric Company (VECO) to this company, thus creating Vivant Corporation.

Today, Vivant Corporation is the family’s flagship company.