Top 100 Cebuano Personalities - Steve Benitez

CEBU, Philippines —  From installing a tiny coffee stall in Ayala Center Cebu in 1996, Steve Benitez’s Bo’s Coffee is now an international contender among coffee shop brands in the world.

A proudly Cebuano coffee shop label that has survived the entry of giants in the Philippines, Bo’s Coffee is sailing in the ocean of coffee lovers across the globe.

Its debut to the international shores is the opening of Qatar coffee shops recently, which could reach up to five branches by 2022 in partnership with Qatari company Almajed.

After its successful entry in Qatar, Bo’s Coffee has attracted more interested franchisees from other countries.

According to Bo’s Coffee president Steve Benitez more than expanding the business, this development allows Philippine coffee origin to reclaim its name in the global coffee market.

“We are realizing our vision and living our mission as we share our unique Filipino coffee experience by highlighting our Philippine Coffee Origins globally,” noted Benitez.

With its global expansion, Bo’s hopes to bring to the world market, not only the aroma of Philippine-coffee, but also the local products made by Filipino artisans.

Bo’s Coffee has been promoting and supporting locally made products, particularly those produced by social enterprises by showcasing their merchandizes in its over a 100 stores nationwide, including its overseas brand in Qatar.

Not long after this Cebuano coffee connoisseur insisted to bring in coffee-drinking lifestyle of fine countries like Europe, giant global brands followed his trail and Cebu was also invaded.

`The likes of Starbucks, Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, Seattle's Best, Gloria Jeans, among others joined Bo's Coffee and few other local brands, as Filipinos started to embrace the new way of enjoying good coffee outside the comfort of their homes.

 Some of the fad-joiners in coffee shop craze in the early 2000 especially local brands easily made money and grew fast. Yet, most of them folded up or some closed majority of their shops--perhaps affected by the giants' presence or simply casualties of competition.

But Bo's Coffee sustained its strength. In fact, while giants coffee shop brands expanded their dominance in Cebu and other urban centers in Philippines, Bo's also grew in subdued manner and successfully survived the intimidating presence of global brewers.

Steve is not only a coffee connoisseur made a name in the international market, but he is also a trailblazer in introducing the lifestyle social coffee drinking in Cebu and the rest of the Philippines.

By 2020, Bo's Coffee targets to make strong entry to the world coffee market, as it plans to consider pending applications for overseas franchise operations, which is now put on hold to make way for its massive Philippine expansion plan.