Thursday, November 08, 2007 Trade fair to bring 40 exhibitors
IN promoting homegrown businesses and entrepreneurial opportunities for Cebuanos, the Sy-led SM City Cebu has organized the first Negososyo 2007, a business and trade exhibit.
The activity will bring together 40 exhibitors from different industry groups, like franchisors, exporters and multi-level marketing groups.
Majority of the exhibitors, though, are exporters in the furniture and fashion accessories sectors, said SM exhibit manager Salve Tagalog.
“We want to help the export industry in selling their export overruns,” Tagalog said in an interview yesterday during the exhibit opening at the SM City Cebu Trade Hall.
“It’s almost December, which is a buying season, so customers can visit here so they have an idea what to buy for Christmas,” she added.
Trade exhibitors include Virginia Foods, L’Cherie fashion accessories, Andre Chocolate Industry, R.Lapid’s Chicharon and Barbecue, among others.
Cebu-grown Andre Chocolate Industry, for example, sells chocolates--in different flower and heart-shaped designs--intended as gift items on special occasions.
According to its co-owner Ric Banquil, their products are sourced from imported chocolate bars from Brazil and Belgium.
The prices of the chocolate items range from P10 to P400.
Joining Negososyo 2007, Banquil said, is a “perfect opportunity” for the company to intensify its marketing campaign in Cebu.
This month, he said the company is now starting to mass produce its items or “at least P200,000” to supply a major retail chain in Cebu.
Andre Chocolate, which was established 10 years ago, is also mulling to open a stall inside SM City Cebu this year.
On the other hand, Manila-grown R. Lapid’s Chicharon and Barbecue is hoping to gain a good market share in Cebu, starting with its participation in the trade exhibit.
“Hindi pa kami masyadong kilala sa Cebu,” Cherry Rose Rosete, the company’s franchising officer, admitted (We are not yet known)
Commissary
She said that while the company holds a commissary at the Cebu north reclamation area, Cebuano consumers are “not yet fully aware” of their products.
“We cater to the A and B markets,” Rosete said.
As a show of optimism in Cebu’s food industry, R. Lapid’s is set to open a branch this year inside the Gaisano Countrymall in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City. Rosete said the company has started to export its products to Southeast Asian countries and has planned to penetrate the US market by opening a company-owned stall there.
