Every business story has a moment when survival hangs by a thread. For Rex Book Store, one of the Philippines’ most recognized educational publishing companies today, that moment came during the 1970s when a devastating fire wiped out the bookstore that the family had spent years building.
According to Atty. Jimmy Buhain, chairman of Rex Book Store, the fire reduced their bookstore along Claro M. Recto Avenue in Manila to ashes.
“But in later years, we encountered another challenge sometime during the 1970s,” Buhain recalls. “A big fire razed the bookstore to the ground; the whole bookstore was made of wood.”
The destruction was complete. Books, furniture, and inventory were all consumed by the fire.
“It was really a hard time for us because the store was underinsured,” Buhain says. “So everything was affected by the fire—everything, as in lahat except for a prayer book entitled Jesus Save Me.”
The small prayer book became a powerful symbol during one of the darkest moments in the company’s history. At a time when almost everything had been lost, the book was one of the few items that survived the disaster.
For the Buhain family, however, the bigger question was how to rebuild.
The bookstore had already gone through difficult transitions in the past—from the death of its founder to the gradual expansion of the business through the partnership between Rex Book Store and New Republic Bookstore. But the fire presented a different kind of challenge.
Without sufficient insurance coverage, the family could not easily replace the lost inventory or rebuild the business quickly.
Faced with this situation, Buhain decided to step forward and help restore the company.
“So I volunteered to become the salesman,” he says.
Instead of waiting for customers to return to the bookstore, Buhain took a more direct approach. He began traveling around the country, bringing books to schools and clients while sharing the story of the fire that had destroyed their shop.
“I became the salesman, and using that prayer book, I went around,” Buhain recalls.
The response from customers surprised him. Many clients who heard the story sympathized with the family’s struggle and decided to support the bookstore by placing orders.
“Luckily, the clients became sympathetic to my story,” Buhain says. “I shared it everywhere; I went all over the Philippines.”
What followed was a period of relentless effort. Buhain traveled extensively, visiting different provinces and institutions in an attempt to rebuild the business piece by piece.
“I worked hard to sell and tried my best to survive because of the difficult situation we were in,” he says.
The experience shaped his understanding of business resilience. Rather than relying on capital or external assistance, the recovery of Rex Book Store came largely from persistence, relationships with customers, and the willingness to do whatever was necessary to keep the business alive.
In many ways, the fire could have marked the end of the company’s story. Small businesses often fail after disasters when resources are limited and rebuilding costs are too high.
But the Buhain family’s determination changed the outcome.
Instead of disappearing from the Recto book district, Rex Book Store slowly recovered from the loss. The years that followed would eventually see the company expand beyond a small bookstore and grow into a major educational publishing enterprise serving schools across the Philippines.
Looking back, the fire remains one of the defining chapters in the history of Rex Book Store. It tested the family’s resolve and forced them to rebuild from almost nothing.
Yet it also revealed something that many entrepreneurs understand only after facing adversity: sometimes the survival of a business depends not on the assets it owns, but on the determination of the people willing to fight for it.
