Local and Foreign Entrepreneurs
Pacita U. Juan
Figaro Coffee, Inc.
Pacita Juan’s willingness to take risks, coupled with her passion for coffee, led her to create Figaro. Together with friends, Juan opened the first Figaro coffee shop in 1993 before Starbucks and Seattle’s Best were introduced to the country. Figaro is now the second largest coffee shop chain in the country, grabbing 30% market share. It is, in fact often mistaken for a foreign brand. From its first store in Makati, Figaro now has more than 30 in the Metro Manila and an outlet in Hong Kong. Juan is now keen on settling up shops in Vietnam, Singapore and China.
While growing the business, CEO Juan saw firsthand the dismal state of local coffee planters. She felt strongly that something had to be done to improve the situation. Through the Figaro foundation, she invites her employees and customers to contribute time, effort and resources to projects that support the local coffee industry such as the Save the Barako tree-planting activities and the Adopt-a-Coffee-Farm project. Through Adopt-a-Coffee-Farm, Figaro taps underutilized farmlands for the cultivation of coffee beans, which the company buys for its coffee blends. The project was first implemented in Amadeo, Cavite and is now being undertaken in some of the remotest and most depressed areas in Mindanao.
Antonina Cesario
Mila’s Lechon
A fresh graduate of Pharmacy from the University of Santo Tomes, one of the more prestigious schools in the Philippines, one would wonder what Antonina Cesario was thinking selling lechon at a time (1968) when a college diploma was a decent way to start a more prestigious career. Antonina started out not even with a lechon but hawking boiled corn in the streets. After a while, she opened what is termed in the Islands as a Sari-Sari Store which are actually holes in the wall stores that are popular in any typical Filipino neighborhood. It was not enough. In the Philippines, there is about one sari-sari store for every 600 population.
Figaro Coffee, Inc.
Pacita Juan’s willingness to take risks, coupled with her passion for coffee, led her to create Figaro. Together with friends, Juan opened the first Figaro coffee shop in 1993 before Starbucks and Seattle’s Best were introduced to the country. Figaro is now the second largest coffee shop chain in the country, grabbing 30% market share. It is, in fact often mistaken for a foreign brand. From its first store in Makati, Figaro now has more than 30 in the Metro Manila and an outlet in Hong Kong. Juan is now keen on settling up shops in Vietnam, Singapore and China.
While growing the business, CEO Juan saw firsthand the dismal state of local coffee planters. She felt strongly that something had to be done to improve the situation. Through the Figaro foundation, she invites her employees and customers to contribute time, effort and resources to projects that support the local coffee industry such as the Save the Barako tree-planting activities and the Adopt-a-Coffee-Farm project. Through Adopt-a-Coffee-Farm, Figaro taps underutilized farmlands for the cultivation of coffee beans, which the company buys for its coffee blends. The project was first implemented in Amadeo, Cavite and is now being undertaken in some of the remotest and most depressed areas in Mindanao.
Antonina Cesario
Mila’s Lechon
A fresh graduate of Pharmacy from the University of Santo Tomes, one of the more prestigious schools in the Philippines, one would wonder what Antonina Cesario was thinking selling lechon at a time (1968) when a college diploma was a decent way to start a more prestigious career. Antonina started out not even with a lechon but hawking boiled corn in the streets. After a while, she opened what is termed in the Islands as a Sari-Sari Store which are actually holes in the wall stores that are popular in any typical Filipino neighborhood. It was not enough. In the Philippines, there is about one sari-sari store for every 600 population.