Love, COVID-19 & pandesal

Just a day after Valentine’s Day, I went to Le Village Lifestyle Park, an al fresco, lifestyle food park in Quezon City where you can wine and dine with friends and family.

In the quaint dining place, one can find a spot under the stars or under fancy trees with glowing pink lights and have a taste of the gastronomic offerings of each of the food stalls. There’s a wide array of stores to choose from, from well-known brands to new food concepts.

I was there for a meeting with Lester Yu, chairman of Fruitas Holdings Inc., the listed food and beverage kiosk operator that is also behind the well-designed food park.

I was surprised to see the park brimming with dine-in guests. I wasn’t able to park right away because the place was already filled to allowable capacity.

Guests were aplenty, enjoying the time together with friends, loved ones, and associates over meals and drinks of their choice.

Mr. Yu, who was also joined by his business associates, told me the crowd was even bigger on Valentine’s Day, as people used the occasion as an excuse to eat out or meet with friends.

Living with the virus

It’s the third pandemic Valentine’s celebration and it seems everyone has grown tired of COVID-19, opting to go on with their lives despite the virus.

Valentine’s Day was just an excuse to go out and celebrate love, but in reality, people just want to return to normal. And that’s what they’ve been doing.

I guess it can be done. We should have done it earlier if only to save people’s sanity and our economy. Of course, that’s easier said than done as we had to grapple many times with varying levels of the virus surge.

But I was really pleasantly surprised to see businesses opening their doors again – vibrant, lively, and very much alive. It was also good to see guests enjoying themselves after two years into the pandemic, even as they continued to practice social distancing and proper health protocols.

I hope this indeed is the beginning of the end of this tiring pandemic. I hope our authorities continue to ease restrictions, but at the same time heed lessons of the past two years – the need for contact tracing, the need to strengthen our healthcare system, and the need to accelerate the roll-out of vaccines and booster shots.

The public should also continue practicing health and safety protocols.

With everyone’s cooperation, hopefully, we will really see the end of the pandemic soon and help bring our economy back on its feet.

Small businesses, especially restaurants, their owners, their employees, and their families that depend on them, have already been so badly hit by the pandemic. They won’t be able to afford another hard lockdown.

Business pivot

During our chat, Lester Yu shared with me that another of the group’s food parks, located along Maginhawa, has likewise reopened and is again welcoming guests.

As for the rest of the business, Fruitas Holdings has benefitted from its move to pivot the business during the pandemic – the introduction of community stores, which diversified its channels and complemented its presence in high foot traffic locations such as malls, offices, and terminals.

It’s hard not to notice the unique stand-alone community stores such as Soy & Bean, Babot’s Farm, Balai Pandesal, because they’re everywhere, highly visible, well-lit, neat, enticing ,and most of all, selling a wide array of food and drinks.

Through these community stores, Fruitas is adapting to the changing times and like many businesses, rolling with the punches.

Last year, Fruitas met its target to open at least 100 community stores with the acquisition of The Tofu Store, which was re-branded to Soy & Bean, in February 2020 and Balai Pandesal in June 2021.

At present, the company operates over 25 brands in its portfolio, including Fruitas Fresh from Babot’s Farm, Buko Loco, Buko ni Fruitas, De Original Jamaican Pattie, Johnn Lemon, Sabroso Lechon, and so on.

What’s next for Fruitas?

Mr. Yu said the company would continuously expand as the economy recovers.

When I asked about the planned P309 million initial public offering (IPO) of Balai Pandesal or Balai, he said it’s happening indeed, possibly in the first half of the year. He promised more updates after completing the regulatory processes.

As Fruitas earlier disclosed, Balai intends to issue up to 325 million primary common shares in its IPO. It set the maximum price of P0.75 per share.  Proceeds of the planned IPO will be used for store network expansion, commissary setup, and to fund future acquisitions.

Balai offers baked goods, especially the quintessential pandesal. It currently operates three brands: Balai Pandesal, Buko ni Fruitas, and Fruitas House of Desserts.

In all, Balai is targeting to expand across the Philippines to have 100 Balai Pandesal outlets by the end of 2022 and 150 Balai Pandesal outlets by end of 2023.

These aren’t easy targets, especially with the economy still on the road to recovery, but Fruitas just keeps on going – pandemic, lockdowns, and all.

Kudos to Mr. Yu, his indefatigable team of employees and his supportive business associates. Indeed, they’re all reaping the Fruitas of their hard work.

Iris Gonzales’ email address is [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com.