Ton and Karen Concepcion have been married for 31 years now. And all this time, they have stood by, uplifted and loved each other. And because of this love, they’ve nurtured and inspired each other to be their best, widening their spheres and areas of interest, all for their union, their business and their growing family.
By BÜM D. TENORIO JR.
When a husband and his wife become conduits in bringing out the best in each other, theirs is a marriage made in heaven.
How heavenly is the relationship between Ton Concepcion and the former Karen Fabie that they have not only loved each other for so long, but have also loved each other’s work? Ton is a no-nonsense businessman. Karen is a hyper-realist visual artist.
Throughout their 31-year marriage, Karen has imbibed the business savvy of her husband, while Ton has become attuned to his creative side, big thanks, of course, to his wife.
“The artist in me has also become an entrepreneur,” says Karen, giving credit to Ton for opening her eyes to business.
Together, the couple owns SMEG Philippines, an 18-year-old company that offers premium Italian kitchen appliances, from stylish refrigerators to cutting-edge ovens, from colorful kettles to sophisticated coffee machines. While Karen is the creative director, Ton is the CEO, or as he puts it good-naturedly, the “chief experience officer.”
They have 15 SMEG stores now with the goal of expanding that number to 50 stores in 2027. They’ve also owned a branch of Jollibee in Manila for 25 years now. The fast-food restaurant employs individuals who rose from the ranks — and whose education the couple have invested on, too. Karen also owns Karen’s Tindahan, an online fashion store that sells products made by our brothers and sisters in the provinces. The couple also has an advocacy of helping coffee farmers around the Philippines.
“And I’m an entrepreneur who’s also become an artist,” says Ton, explaining that from the genius of his wife as creative director of their business, the artist in him was also born. In fact, he seems more excited than his wife for her upcoming group show at the Grand Palais in Paris this February. Ton, chairman of the board of Condura and vice chairman of Concepcion Industries Corp., is also a naturally gifted photographer, but he has yet to exhibit his beautiful photographs.
The couple calls their relationship a “journey.” It’s a “companionship” that is made more tender by love every single day. It’s in the little words of appreciation. “You look lovely in what you’re wearing,” Ton tells Karen at the PeopleAsia shoot. “I’ll share my pasta with you,” Karen tells Ton at the restaurant after the pictorial, even scooping a portion of the dish onto his plate.
“We can go cheesy still,” Karen laughs.
“That’s how love goes,” Ton affirms.
“Baby brother”
Before the two started dating, Karen used to call Ton “baby brother.” She is nine months older than Ton.
They knew each other because both live in the same village in Makati — Ton in the northern part of the village; Karen in the southern side. But north and south intertwined when they carpooled to UP Diliman where Ton finished Political Science and Karen finished Fine Arts major in Painting.
Karen was even pairing Ton with other girls, but Ton was not interested. Unknown to Karen, Ton, son of businessman Raul T. Concepcion and the former Menchu delas Alas, was already eyeing her in silence. The “baby brother” treatment only stopped when Ton told her to do so.
Very clearly, Ton made his intentions for Karen known. Love ensued. Ton was so seriously in love with Karen that at one point he did not join the Concepcion family vacation in Baguio because Karen was sick. He stayed home. Karen received a letter from Ton’s father.
“Before we got married, Daddy wrote me a letter. I still have that note from him where he said: ‘Dear Karen, You know, we’re going to Baguio and Ton’s staying. And I hope you’re going to be better. It must mean something for Ton to stay. Love, Tito Ronnie’.”
“My dad said he loved Karen’s lolo, Benito Cu-Unjieng, because he was a gentleman of the old school,” Ton adds.
“My whole family, my mom, my two brothers love Ton. To this day,” says Karen. (Ton says he even courted Karen’s yaya first because if he was not in her good graces, their love story would have been different.)
After three years, they set their altar date in 1993 the couple is blessed with five children, a son-in-law and two grandchildren.
“We teach our children never to be entitled. And other old-school values. The old-fashioned way. I think it still applies. It never becomes old-fashioned. We tell them to open their lola’s door. We teach the boys chivalry,” Ton says.
“And also not to take things for granted, to be kind to people. To be grateful. To always say ‘thank you’ and ‘please.’ Greet your titos and titas. We teach them how to be grateful. Gratitude is a big thing. We teach them to be kind always. Be a gentleman. Stand up when a woman enters the room,” says Karen.
Ton agrees that the rise and fall of a spouse is dependent on his or her partner. “That’s why I always tell my kids, the most important thing in life is really who you marry. That’s true. And we marry the family of our spouse as well. That’s so important.”
Lessons on love
What are the most important lessons Ton and Karen have learned from each other?
“I have learned to be kinder from Ton,” Karen quickly says. “Ton is very kind. He is very supportive of people who are not even nice to him. And that I cannot do. Ton is always fair. He’s always a gentleman.”
“If she says I’m kind, it’s because she made me kind. Because kindness is a word that is so deep because it means you love. It comes from love,” Ton says.
He adds: “She taught me how to be a good person. If I were an image, I’d be rough around the edges. Karen shaved off all of my rough corners and smoothened them out and really made me a better person, a good person. She basically made me a more holistic and a more balanced person.
“They say the success of a man is the woman. I think that’s really what it is. Because I’ve been married to Karen longer than I had been single. I got married when I was 23. My mom raised me up to 23 years old. After that, for 32 years, Karen raised me already, right? So in a way, the man is raised by the woman. It’s true. And that’s why successful men are backed up by women. It’s because their job is to make the men the best they can be,” Ton says.
“And that we’re stronger together than apart. I think it is the very important lesson I learned from the Concepcions. No matter what, family comes first,” says Karen.
“I’ve grown in a way that I never thought would be possible; that I would be in business, being an art person. It was Ton who challenged me to go into business. First with Jollibee, being his managing director. And secondly, being his partner in SMEG,” Karen says.
For his part, Ton says: “What makes me happy and in love with Karen is that there’s no other companion in the world that I would rather have than her. Sometimes part of being grateful is to imagine what if you don’t have what you have now. I can’t imagine how life would be without her. It would be the loneliest thing in the world. Because who will share with me all these happiness and memories. It’s companionship, which comes from friendship, of course.”
Indeed, theirs is a blissful marriage. One filled with love that feels like heaven on earth.
Photography by MJ SUAYAN
Art direction by DEXTER FRANCIS DE VERA
Makeup and grooming by KLENG TOTANES
Hair by HERNANI PANIZA
