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Tourism boom drives investments in Philippine hospitality sector

By Arra B. Francia
Reporter
THE booming tourism industry in the Philippines is prompting more investments in the hospitality sector, with almost 9,000 rooms in hotels and serviced apartments seen to be completed until 2021.
This is according to real estate consultancy firm JLL Philippines, which noted that homegrown hotel developments such as Seda Hotels by the Ayala group and Hotel 101 by Hotel of Asia, Inc. drove the hotel industry last year.
Most of the hotels to completed in the next three years are located in Parañaque City, including Okada Manila (Phase 2), The Westin Hotel Manila Bayshore, Seda Bay Area, Kingsford Hotel, and Hotel Okura.
There are 2,100 rooms scheduled to be completed in Makati City, namely Aruga by Rockwell (Phase 3), Seda Circuit Makati, Seda Gateway Makati, Mandarin Oriental Manila, Somerset Valero, Somerset Salcedo, and Seda Ayala North Exchange.
A total of 1,600 are set to be finished in Taguig City: Seda Hotel BGC (expansion), Red Planet The Fort, Hotel 101 Fort, Dusit D2 The Fort, and Seda Arca South.
Meanwhile, Pasay City will see the opening of 1,200 rooms within the period, consisting of Ascott-DD Meridian Park, Kabayan Hotel, Hilton Manila City, Hotel Okura Manila, Ritz-Carlton, and Red Planet Entertainment City.
Quezon City will also complete about 1,000 rooms by then, namely Red Planet Quezon Avenue, Red Planet Quezon North Avenue, Canvas Hotel Activa, and Movenpick Hotel & Residences.
JLL Philippines said hotels in the Bay Area are expected to command the highest rates due to the presence of resort-casino complexes, which continue to attract tourists from South Korea and Mainland China. Central business districts are also seen to have high room rates.
The development of more hotels in the country comes alongside the government’s efforts to improve infrastructure, such as the proposed rehabilitation of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the expansion of Clark International Airport, as well as the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Terminal 2 expansion.
The National Economic and Development Authority is also assessing the proposed New Manila International Airport in Bulakan, Bulacan.
“Apart from infrastructure, another major tourism endeavour is the continuous rehabilitation of Boracay and Manila Bay led by various national agencies working together to make sure that environmental compliance in tourism destinations all over the Philippines is maintained and monitored,” according to JLL Philippines.
Higher hospitality investments in the Philippines is in line with the growth in hotel transaction volumes in the region, with an estimated growth of 15% to $9.5 billion this year.
“Building on 2018, investment momentum is expected to accelerate as investors look to sell assets and ride the anticipated tourist boom. JLL expects that the most notable buyers in 2019 will be Pan-Asian private equity funds that raised capital last year but have yet to deploy it,” JLL Philippines said.

DICT wants MoU with telcos for towers

THE Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said it wants to partner with telecommunications firms for its common tower initiative through the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that will also include the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
In a statement on Monday, the agency said the MoU will be part of the government’s target of installing 50,000 common towers all over the country over the next seven years.
“In the said MOU, the DICT and NTC will identify sites where common towers are recommended to be built, with a target of 3,000 sites on Year 1 and gradually increasing it to 10,000 sites from Year 5 to Year 7. Telcos will also coordinate with the two parties in the identification of priority sites,” it said.
It also noted the MoU will have provisions that would “avoid tower duplication, as well as connect more missionary areas through a possible government subsidy.”
The DICT is still crafting a revised common tower policy, which is targeted to be released within the month.
“Telcos will be the end-user of these common towers so we fully need their cooperation to improve our overall telecommunication landscape,” DICT Acting Secretary Eliseo M. Rio, Jr. said in the statement.
Smart Communications, Inc.; Globe Telecom, Inc. and incoming third telco Mislatel consortium have all said earlier they are supportive of the common tower initiative of the government.
As of last week, the DICT had signed MoUs with 15 common tower providers, all aiming to receive orders for common towers from the telcos. Their MoUs with the DICT state the government will only help them in securing regulatory permits once they have signed deals with telcos. — Denise A. Valdez

Who’s next? Daltrey, Townshend set for ‘full throttle’ tour, album

LONDON — “I hope I die before I get old,” The Who sang in their 1965 hit “My Generation.”
But more than 50 years on, the veteran rock band’s two surviving original members are set for a new tour named Moving On! and the release of their first album of new music in 13 years.
Singer Roger Daltrey and guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend, now in their 70s, will take the stage in May as part of The Who’s current six-member lineup and backed by an orchestra to play venues in the United States and Canada as well as London’s Wembley Stadium in July.
After tours of past hits, namely the hugely influential rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia, Daltrey, who performed with an orchestra last year, said it was time to do something “that reflects where we are in our lives at the moment.”
“We’re old men now… we can’t go out there and pretend it’s going to be anywhere like we were 40, 50 years ago,” he told Reuters in an interview at Wembley.
“Adding the orchestra… can elevate the music into a place where it feels kind of grown up… (but) people mustn’t think just because there’s an orchestra with The Who that it’s going to be watered down. We’ll be playing exactly full throttle like we usually do.”
Emerging in 1960s London, The Who, which included the late drummer Keith Moon and bass player John Entwistle, have sold more than 100 million records worldwide, with hits like “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and “I Can See For Miles.”
“We could never have imagined it (the group’s ongoing success,” Daltrey said.
“I was coming to (Wembley) Stadium today and taking the same journey I used to take every night in the group van… All the memories come back.”
Townshend, the band’s principal songwriter and famed for thrashing his guitar on stage, said he felt “grateful” they could still perform.
“Roger and I are very lucky to be alive,” he said. “We’re lucky to be reasonably healthy. We’re lucky that we can still play the music that we grew up with.”
The Who this year are also planning to release their first album of new music since 2006’s Endless Wire.
“We went through so many different phases so now really the challenge is just writing music which is good music which suits Roger and I,” Townshend said.
“I’m a real, real hard taskmaster when it comes to what I sing and whether, whether it’s a good song or not. And I’ll tell you he’s still got it,” Daltrey said.
The singer has said Moving On! is not a farewell tour, but acknowledged the duo’s advancing years.
“One of them’s gonna be (a farewell tour), we might not make the end of this one,” he joked. “Every time you hit the stage there’s a possibility of game over at our age.” — Reuters

ICTSI mulls turning Hanjin’s Subic property into multipurpose facility

INTERNATIONAL Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) is looking at the possible acquisition of Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines’ (HHIC-Philippines) assets to turn it into a multipurpose facility.
“Still working, trying to put the team together because we are not just looking at that as a port. We are looking at that as a multipurpose facility — power, steel, ship repair, multipurpose, automotive, crane,” ICTSI Global Corporate Head Christian R. Gonzalez told reporters in Manila on Friday.
However, Mr. Gonzalez noted the port giant is not interested in the shipbuilding business.
“Our intention is not shipbuilding at all. It’s to utilize the site for other critical type of support infrastructure like automotive terminal, steel, power,” he said.
Last month, ICTSI Chairman Enrique K. Razon, Jr. expressed interest in the bankrupt shipbuilder, which has facilities in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
“It is a good site from a maritime point of view. The problem is its very bad side from a road infrastructure point of view. The potential is good as a domestic transhipment…definitely not containers. Now that potential grows when we see better infrastructure connecting Hanjin to SCTEX (Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway),” Mr. Gonzalez said.
Meanwhile, ICTSI on Monday said it gained the approval of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) in its acquisition of new shares in the Manila North Harbor Port, Inc. (MNHPI), which raises its stake in the company to 50%.
Last September, ICTSI announced it signed a share purchase agreement with Harbour Centre Port Terminal, Inc. (HCPTI) to buy 4.55 million shares in MNHPI at P200 each, or a total of P910 million for 15.17% of the firm.
MNHPI is the private concessionaire in charge of the operations, management and maintenance of the North Harbor for 25 years starting November 2009.
Also, the subsidiary of ICTSI in Papua New Guinea said it recently received its order of three hybrid rubber tyred gantries (RTG) for the Port of Lae, which are scheduled for deployment this month.
The RTGs acquired by South Pacific International Container Terminal Ltd. (SPICT) are part of the more than PGK15.6 million (approximately P243.6 million) investment of the company in the terminal.
“We are very proud of this order. It is the result of our commitment to innovation and proven performance around the world, and it will further strengthen our presence in Papua New Guinea,” ICTSI South Pacific Chief Executive Officer Anil Singh said in the statement. — Reicelene Joy N. Ignacio and Denise A. Valdez

From CEO to comedian

ATUL KHATRI was the CEO of his family-run IT business (Kaytek Computer Services Private Limited) but at the age of 43, boredom and a midlife crisis got to him and he started doing stand-up comedy — initially just to tick it off his bucket list, but he found that he had a real knack for comedy, Then, after 25 years in the company, he chucked it all in favor of making people laugh. Before he knew it, he had gone around the world, performing more than 400 shows.
Now he’s coming to Manila for a one-night show on March 23 at the City Club in Makati City.
“You could also call it midlife crisis. I used to post three to four jokes [on Facebook] every day since 2009. My friends found them very funny and original and some of them suggested I try my hand at stand-up comedy. That was also the time that the stand-up comedy scene in India was just starting. It was a New Year resolution of 2012. So I registered for the first open mic of 2012,” Mr. Khatri was quoted as saying in a press release.
He recalled that in preparation to do his first performance, he wrote a set and didn’t tell anyone what he was about to do except his wife and he took her along for insurance just in case his jokes fell flat.
Two years later, Mr. Khatri performed at the Hong Kong International Comedy Festival, where he was the only Indian comedian. He went on to win the grand prize in the 2016 CEO’s Got Talent television show by Freemantle Media (the company behind everything from The Price is Right and Family Feud to American Idol, The X Factor, and America’s Got Talent).
He was also featured in Netflix’s show Comedians of the World where he talked about being married for 25 years, his thoughts on the Koh-i-Noor Diamond being kept in London instead of India, and why immigration officers don’t smile.
In his episode in the Netflix series, he recounted that whenever he is set to visit London, people back home always ask him to steal the Koh-i-Noor diamond — one of the largest cut diamonds in the world at 105.6 carats and part of the British Crown jewels — and that it’s his duty as an Indian to bring it home.
“No, I won’t get it. It’s safe there. We know where it is. Go to the Tower of London, pay £22, take a photo and come back. If the same Koh-i-noor was in India, we wouldn’t know where it would be. Our politicians will cut it and distribute it among themselves,” he says in his comedy spiel.
WILL TELL JOKES FOR BEER
Hosting the show in Manila will be Singaporean comedian Deepak Chandran, while the opening act will be Hong Kong’s Ben Quinlan who himself got started in stand-up comedy after being broke and desperate enough to make three people laugh for free beer.
A regular of the TakeOut Comedy Club in Hong Kong, Mr. Quinlan might have a full-time job in the financial service industry today, but “for free beer he continuously inflicts upon his audiences his experience as a half-Chinese and half-Australian and observations about life in Hong Kong,” according to his profile in the TakeOut Comedy Club website.
Mr. Quinlan gave his first Tedx Talk in 2018 where he talked about his corporate life and comedy life. He also won the 11th International Hong Kong Comedy Competition in 2017.
(Tedx Talks are independently organized events that focus on local voices for local communities unlike Ted Talks which are focused on a more global approach.)
“We have been bringing in great comics for many years and we are gaining a bigger audience as we work on growing the market for people who appreciate intelligent stand-up comics,” said Saira Budhrani, President of Happy Happenings by Prime I Events, who organized the show, in an e-mail interview with BusinessWorld. “These artists have so [many] laughs to share with their real life stories and poking [at] the fun side of the very serious and stressful lives we have.
“2019 is expected to be a busy year for us in the international comedy scene with [all the] exciting concept shows and amazing talents we are lining up,” she added.
Atul Kahtri in Manila will be held on March 23, 8:30 p.m., at the City Club, Makati. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the show will offer a full bar and there will be several Indian and non-Indian concessionaires.
Tickets are priced at P2,000 (for VIP) and standard tickets are P1,500. For tickets and other inquiries contact 0920-971-7055 or 0917-570-3057. — ZBC

How banks can speed up processing of home loans

By Vincent Mariel P. Galang
Reporter
GRANTING home loans can be made easier, faster and more secure through digitization.
Praveen Kumar, general manager of ASG Technologies, said getting a loan in the Philippines would take a maximum of 30 days before the proceeds are disbursed, versus the regional average of seven to 20 days.
“Imagine that you are collecting documents, putting it in the system, putting it through individual paperwork, getting it signed. We noticed many banks in the Philippines, actually take 20 to 30 days to disburse a loan because of this process where they are actually physically sending documents, collecting it, etc.,” he told BusinessWorld.
Florida-based ASG has been operating in the Philippines for about 13 years by providing information management and information technology (IT) system management solutions.
In the Philippines, ASG counts seven of the 10 top banks as its clients. This is because of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) push for digitization, requiring all banks to submit their roadmap for digitization by April.
Mr. Kumar said the delays in loan processing are costing not just the bank, but also the customer.
“If I can disperse a loan quicker it gives more revenue to the bank, it also helps you buy the house quicker. It also helps the seller make money quicker, and all of this is going to help the economy go faster and bigger. This whole process of digitization will help the economy as much as it helps the bank,” he said.
LAGGING IN DIGITIZATION
Companies in the Philippines continue to lag in terms of digitization.
“The maturity levels of certain companies in the Philippines they are a little behind. However, the pace that they are transforming is very quick so they will actually catch up,” Mr. Kumar said.
“Secondly, it’s never wrong to be behind… at least we believe that when you’re behind you learn from the mistakes that others have done… Sometimes, it’s a bonus to be a little behind because you skip a complete generation of stuff which did not add value,” he added.
ASG has introduced the content services platform Mobius that does not only help streamline and speed up the process, but also add more security to personal information.
Through Mobius, documents are scanned and are stored on a platform which can be accessed by only those who are permitted to access it. Also, passing the document from one to another will not require repetitive scanning of a single document, which eats up internal space. Every modification done on a document will also be noted, allowing for transparency.
“Within the region… we have actually cut short this entire process to seven days,” Mr. Kumar said.
“Not only is the solution making sure that there is no tampering of data… but it also ensures privacy maintained within the system so that not everybody has access to everything that is stored in the bank,” he added.

NLEX lowers additional flat rate by P1

NLEX Corp. said it is cutting by P1 the additional toll rate at the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) open system, which will be implemented starting Wednesday, Mar. 20.
In a statement on Monday, the toll road operator said it will raise flat fees by P9, not the P10 authorized by the Toll Regulatory Board, for the NLEx “open system” covering Balintawak, Karuhatan, Paso de Blas, Mindanao Avenue, Meycauayan and Marilao sections.
The adjusted toll fee for the open system of NLEx will now be P54 from the current P45 for Class 1 vehicles, P136 from P114 for Class 2 vehicles and P164 from P136 for Class 3 vehicles.
NLEX Corp. said the decision is meant to help “cushion the impact of the recently approved toll adjustments.”
For the closed system, or the rates in NLEx based on distance traveled, NLEX Corp. said the additional P0.18 per kilometer in toll fee remains.
The toll adjustments are partly from the first tranche of NLEX Corp.’s periodic toll rate increases as guaranteed by its concession agreement with the government. This accounts for the P4 increase in the open system and P0.18 per kilometer for the closed system.
The open system rate also accounts for the P6 add-on toll for the newly opened NLEX Harbor Link Segment 10, which extends the toll road from Karuhatan, Valenzuela City to C3, Caloocan City.
NLEX Corp. is under Metro Pacific Tollways Corp, the tollways unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (MPIC). MPIC is one of three key Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being Philex Mining Corp. and PLDT, Inc. Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a majority stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Denise A. Valdez

LV pulls Jackson-themed items from collection

PARIS — French fashion house Louis Vuitton (LV) has pulled Michael Jackson-themed items from its 2019 summer menswear collection following a documentary about alleged child abuse by the late pop star.
The collection was shown in January at the Paris Fashion Week and is due to hit stores in June, but a Louis Vuitton spokeswoman said the Jackson-themed items would not be put up for sale.
Louis Vuitton said that at the time of the event, it was not aware of the Leaving Neverland documentary, in which two adult men say they were befriended by Jackson and abused by him in the early 1990s.

ACCORDING to The Guardian, among the pieces which have been dropped by LV are “a pleated shendyt similar to that worn by Jackson in the ‘Remember the Time’ video; a collection of flag-print pieces inspired by ‘We are the World’; a jumper, hoodie and a shirt and trousers with cartoon figures from ‘The Wiz’ (photo), the 1978 all-black musical version that starred Jackson; a T-shirt printed with an image of the singer’s loafers and socks; and a jacket based on the three-zip red version worn by Jackson in the video for ‘Beat It.’” – REUTERS

“I am aware that in light of this documentary, the show has caused emotional reactions. I strictly condemn any form of child abuse, violence or infringement against any human rights,” Louis Vuitton menswear designer Virgil Abloh said in a statement.
Abloh, an American designer who was hired by Vuitton in March 2018, said his intention for this show had been to refer to Jackson as a pop culture artist.
The documentary has caused a backlash against Jackson’s legacy, as some radio stations stopped playing his music and an episode of The Simpsons cartoon show featuring his voice is being pulled from future broadcasts.
Jackson’s family has called the documentary and news coverage of the accusations a “public lynching” and said he was “100% innocent.”
“We find the allegations in the documentary deeply troubling,” Louis Vuitton CEO Michael Burke said, adding that the firm is fully committed to advocating the cause of child welfare.
Louis Vuitton is the world’s biggest luxury brand, with annual sales of more than €10 billion, and is the biggest revenue driver for its parent company, French luxury goods group LVMH.
The menswear unit is a relatively small part of its business and pulling the Jackson-themed items should not have a major impact on the label. — Reuters

The future of travel:How the travel industry will cater to the next generation

By Peter L. Allen
THERE is no question that the growth of the sharing economy and new traveler expectations are disrupting existing norms. Travelers are increasingly looking for accommodations, travel services, and activities that are customized to their needs — it’s a worldwide phenomenon that the Philippines is fast adapting to.
But for the Philippine travel industry to keep up with this global change, it must understand the behavior of the modern traveler. Currently, the local travel sector can learn from two key strategies to ensure that it caters to the global market demands.
WINNING OVER ‘BLEISURE’ TRAVELERS
According to the Global Business Travel Association’s forecast, total business travel spend will grow between 6 and 7 percent annually, reaching US $1.7 trillion in 2021. This accelerated growth may partly be attributed to the blurring lines between business and leisure travel as more travelers are combining their business trips with weekend stays — also known as ‘bleisure’ traveler.
Businesses that aim to cater to this growing travel segment would do well to incorporate flexible spaces and services that can work equally well for business and leisure travel purposes — from working and living spaces, to amenities, apps, and services.
Resorts that have dedicated communal working spaces, extra ‘home-comfort’ facilities, or host networking activities specifically for business travelers will have an edge over competitors. Convenient tagging of expenses that can differentiate personal versus business transactions is another peripheral service catering to ‘bleisure’ travelers that hotels should look into.
PERSONALIZED TRAVEL EXPERIENCE
While travelers’ expectations of comfort, convenience, and reliability have not changed, travelers are increasingly discerning when it comes to customized and authentic local experiences. Many of them are also looking for alternative accommodation in both local and foreign destinations.
Local home rentals are an increasingly popular choice, as the growth of this sector clearly shows. Travelers look for features like kitchens, shared spaces, and laundry amenities — essentials that allow for a much longer stay. Interestingly, we see hotels responding to the growth of this new sector by stepping up to provide these features as well.
Customization of the travel experience is also taken up a notch as a lot of travel businesses have gone digital and use big data analytics and machine learning algorithms to create personalized services. Traveler profiles that include information such as the type of travel, which airlines the traveler is taking, itinerary, dietary preferences and restrictions, and disability requirements provide valuable insights. This data will pave the way for the emergence of highly personalized services and recommendations such as automated door-to-door pick-up from the airport, custom dining menus, reservations, and itineraries.
Data of this kind will also foster smarter and more effective collaborations between travel companies and local businesses. For example, a hotel may link up with nearby restaurants that cater to specific dietary needs to expand its room-service dining options. The extent of these partnerships can make a huge impact on the industry as the need for hotels and other travel businesses to offer more personalized services is increasing.
There is certainly a bright future ahead for travel companies around the globe. But in order to benefit from this growing market sector, it’s important that businesses take into account the changing profile of travelers and offer customizable options in terms of amenities to best cater to consumers. The more the travel experience can be personalized, the better the returns can be for the Philippine travel sector.
 
About the author:
Peter L. Allen is the Managing Director of Agoda Outside, the outreach and public affairs department of Agoda.com, where he works extensively on travel and tourism issues across Asia and is an advisor to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). He has taught at Princeton University, Pomona College, the University of Chicago, and Nanyang Business School in Singapore.

Gov’t makes partial T-bills award

THE GOVERNMENT made a partial award of the Treasury bills as rates rose. — KARL ANGELO N. VIDAL

THE GOVERNMENT made a partial award of the Treasury bills (T-bill) on offer yesterday amid lukewarm demand as market players sought higher returns ahead of the policy meetings of the local and US central banks.
The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) raised just P13.4 billion out of the programmed P20 billion at its auction on Monday.
The BTr opted to partially award the instruments as bids received totalled P24.9 billion, lower than the P31.8 billion in offers fetched during the previous T-bills auction.
Broken down, the Treasury borrowed only P3.386 billion out of the programmed P6 billion via the 91-day tenor yesterday even as tenders reached P6.686 billion.
This, as the average rate for the papers went up seven basis points (bp) to 5.786% from the 5.716% fetched during the previous auction.
For the 182-day bills, the Treasury borrowed P4.96 billion out of the P6 billion the Treasury wanted to raise, with bids totalling P9.48 billion. Its average yield also picked up 5.1 bps to 5.987% from the 5.936% fetched last week.
The government likewise made a partial award of the 364-day papers, accepting just P5.096 billion out of the P8-billion program and total offers amounting to P8.766 billion. The average yield likewise climbed 3.3 bps to 6.052% from the 6.018% quoted in the previous offer.
At the secondary market, the three-month, six-month, and one-year papers were quoted at 5.687%, 5.911% and 6.046% yesterday, based on the PHP Bloomberg Valuation Service Reference Rates.
Following the auction, National Treasurer Rosalia V. De Leon said the BTr made a partial award of the T-bills as they do not see the need for any significant increase in rates.
“But we see that the banks are charging higher rates particularly on the short end of the curve given the funding cost right now is higher because of…the tight liquidity,” Ms. De Leon told reporters yesterday.
“But…the yield curve is relatively flat because of expectations that inflation will be trekking back to the 2-4% [target] of the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas). So the appetite is on the long end of the curve.”
Traders interviewed last Friday also expected demand for the short-term securities to be tepid following the recent retail Treasury bond sale, which siphoned off liquidity.
Meanwhile, Ms. De Leon also noted the policy meeting of the central bank on Thursday, where the monetary authority is expected to keep interest rates steady even as inflation is seen to decelerate.
In a BusinessWorld poll, 10 out of 13 analysts said the central bank will likely keep its benchmark rates unchanged on March 21, its second policy meeting for the year, as they would need more inflation data to trim borrowing costs.
Headline inflation clocked in at 3.8% in February, marking the slowest pace in 12 months, although still just below the ceiling of the BSP’s 2-4% target band for this year.
“Also for the US Fed[eral Reserve], they are going to have their own policy meeting coming Wednesday, so with the soft week of US economic data, we see also see that they will continue with its ‘patient’ mantra,” Ms. De Leon added.
Sought for comment, a trader said the auction results were in line with market expectations that rates will pick up by 10 bps from the previous auction.
For this quarter, the government is planning to borrow P360 billion from the domestic market. Some P240 billion will be borrowed this quarter through 12 weekly T-bill auctions. On the other hand, P120 billion worth of Treasury bonds will also be issued through six fortnightly auctions. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

Potato Corner eyes more stores in PHL, abroad

By Vincent Mariel P. Galang, Reporter
POTATO CORNER is looking to open more stores in the Philippines and internationally this year.
“For international, we are opening 60 stores for outside the Philippines… all around. We have more than a hundred stores in Indonesia, already. We have 40 stores in the US… 30 plus stores in Thailand, already, so we’re growing internationally,” Jose P. Magsaysay, Jr. , president and chief executive officer of Potato Corner told BusinessWorld in an interview March 5.
For the Philippines, Mr. Magsaysay said the company is targeting to open a “maybe, hundred more stores.”

POTATO CORNER is one of the most popular food cart franchises in the country. — WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/POTATO-CORNER

At present, the food cart giant has 1,100 stores across the Philippines, while there are 200 stores outside the country.
Potato Corner’s expansion has been mostly due to franchising. Around 70% of its stores are franchised, while 30% are owned by the company.
Mr. Magsaysay said that the company maintained its franchising fee for Potato Corner, especially now that most of their new franchisees were the customers before.
“Not too far. Alam mo [You know what], that’s one thing we did. We’re always protecting our franchisees in terms of their payback, their return on investment, so we never increased the franchise fee. Kung ano ’yung franchise fee namin [Whatever is our franchise fee] 15 years ago, ’yun pa rin ang [that is still the] franchise fee ng [of] Potato Corner until today,” he said.
“A lot of our new franchisees now were our customers when they were, bata pa sila [still young]… Sila na ngayon ang mga partners namin [They are now are our partners]… Ngayon, may edad na sila, pwede na silang mag-invest [Now that they are in the right age to invest], Potato Corner ’yung choice nila kasi [is their choice because] it’s something they love,” he noted.
Mr. Magsaysay noted that for Potato Corner, the company does not require the interested franchisee to have the capital immediately. As long as the chosen site for the franchise can earn and return the investment, then the company is very much open to franchising it.
“Kunwari sinabi, may site dito, pero wala akong kapital, pero pag tinignan ko yung site mo, it’s something that I cannot say no to, mag-partner tayo… bigyan kita ng franchise, tsaka mo na ako bayaran. [For example, someone says I have a site but I don’t have capital. But when I check the site, it’s something that I cannot say no to. We can partner. I can give you the franchise and you can pay me afterwards],” he said.
Potato Corner started in 1992 with the concept formulated by Mr. Magsaysay and his three other partners, namely Jorge Wineke, Danny Bernejo, and Ricky Montelibano. The concept is selling flavored french fries the way popcorn is sold.
With their investment of P35,000 each, the single kiosk in SM Megamall grew to what is known to be the “World’s Best Flavored Fries.” Not only is it only in the Philippines, but also in more than 100 countries including Indonesia, United States, Thailand, and Panama.

Filinvest City and Davao Oriental to hold music festivals in April

FILINVEST CITY will host its community fair, Festival of Possibilities, on April 26 at the Filinvest City Event Grounds.
Set to perform are Brisom, Chiquerella, Lunar Lights, Wicked Adobo, Written by the Stars, I Belong to the Zoo, This Band, Itchyworms, Rivermaya, and Spongecola.
Now on its second year, Festival of Possibilities 2019 will also have arcade games and inflatables and a food bazaar.
Admission to the Festival of Possibilities is free so long as festival goers present proof of residence or employment in Filinvest City at the venue gates.
For more information on the festival, visit www.facebook.com/FilivestCityOFFICIAL.
DAVAO ORIENTAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
The Davao Oriental provincial government and the City of Mati, along with Orca Promotions, are organizing what will be the biggest music festival in the province set for April 6-7.
Dubbed the Bonfire Music Festival, the two-day music festival will be held at the Provincial Sports Complex at Bgy Dahican, Mati in Davao Oriental.
Lined up to perform on April 6 are December Avenue, Nairud, Harmoniax, Broken Chords of May, OrientRocks, Muzza Band and Mark & Sid; April 7 will feature top rave DJs Tom Taus, Stefan Lan, Ron Poe, Jet Boado, Cathy Frey, Cassie D and Jack Ripper.
A two-day pass will grant access to all these performances and discounts for activities such as a paintball challenge, freebies from sponsors, raffle entries, and many more.
For tickets and inquiries, call 087-306-0573
e-mail gcarmelotes.orca@gmail.com or visit the Bonfire Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/bonfiremusicfest/.

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