A business that banked on a lot of good burgers, Brothers Burger has become one of the fastest rising names in the local food industry.
Started by three enterprising brothers, JDJ, Martin, and Quito Jose, the business started flipping burgers in 1999 with the aim of giving a different kind of burger to Filipinos.

“We wanted to give the market good comfort good,” says Martin, the company’s vice president for business development and marketing. But it was Quito, a California-trained chef, who brought up the idea of selling a premium burger. Recalls Martin: “When we started, we didn’t have a target market in mind. We just wanted to give better quality burgers to Filipinos.”

With their business booming, they started professionalizing their operations to fend off copy cats and maintain the quality of their products.

“We opened a commissary to maintain the quality of our burgers, and we were not afraid [of copycats] because we trusted that our products would sell,” Martin says.

Their commitment to the company is such that until now, a full decade after they started,Quito is still the one mixing the patties for sale. Brothers Burger has parlayed this hands on formula into a successful franchise business that now has a total of 18 stores—six of them franchised and the rest company-owned—in Metro Manila, Baguio City, and Cebu City.

A Brothers Burger franchise costs P1.5 million, with the total investment cost ranging from from P7.5 million to P16.6 million depending on the store’s size and building requirements. This total covers the investment for construction, equipment, furniture, startup, and pre-opening and grand opening assistance. Each store requires at least 8 to 15 people to run.

Thisstory is an abridged version from the July issue of Entrepreneur Magazine's Franchise Awards 2009. To read the full story behind other successful franchises, grab a copy of the magazine at your nearest bookstore and Mini-Stop branches nationwide. For the franchise fact sheet, visit our company directories by clicking here