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Thursday, June 02, 2005
Julie’s Bakeshop targets 500 bakeshops this year
Julie's Bakeshop is planning to have 500 bakeshops by the end of this year.
This was revealed by Virgilio Espeleta, chief operating officer of Julie’s Franchise Corp. (JFC), yesterday during the opening of the three-day 2005 Suppliers Expo of the Cebu-based bakery chain at Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.
Espeleta told Sun.Star that Julie’s now has more than 450 bakeshops in the country, counting both company-owned and franchised outlets.
“We hope to hit the 500 mark by yearend,” he said.
Espeleta said there was no particular place that the bakeshop chain wanted to expand to in the country, but he revealed that there was a big potential for more bakeshops in Luzon and Metro Manila.
“Out of 10 new bake-shops we opened in the last two years, six of seven were opened in Luzon or Metro Manila,” he said.
There are already 104 Julie’s bakeshops in Cebu.
Julie’s is the number one bakeshop in the country in terms of number of branches.
Vision
But Espeleta said that with JFC’s vision of having “a Julie’s bakeshop in every town,” the bakeshop still has a long way to go in the Philippines.
Despite this, the executive said the company was not discounting the possibility of going overseas.
“We’re looking at that. The key is finding the right business partner or franchisee, and the right place. Southeast Asia, including China, (will be considered) first. We see this in the next three to five years,” he said.
Rising costs
Espeleta acknowledged that with the rising prices of raw materials, cooking gas, rentals and even labor, operating in the bakery business is “really (like walking on) a tightrope.”
To stay profitable, the bakeshop makes sure it sells higher-value products aside from the staple pan de sal, whose price cannot be raised too much because it is patronized mostly by the masses.
Founder Julie Gandionco said the bakeshop chain started from a single bakery in Wireless, Mandaue City in 1981. (CTL)
(June 2, 2005 issue)
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