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Museum Cafe

Annabella Santos-Wisniewski asked herself: "Why work for a foreign company when I could do my own thing?" She went on to make a name for herself in upscale hotels and food establishments management.

By Elaine Ruzul S. Ramos; Photos by Ocs Alvarez


In July of 1999, the Wisniewskis opened FoodParks in the Enterprise Center as the first salvo of FoodParks by Raintree, a new food-service enterprise they had formed the year before. However, since it was not financially attractive to just sub-lease space in that food court, FoodParks also created its own food outlets, Lola's Kitchen and New York Café, as well as operated its own full-service restaurants there. To oversee the FoodParks business, the Wisniewskis tapped their son Andrej.

Today, FoodParks also manages Food Odyssey at the LKG Tower, Food & Art Galerie at GT Tower, and Food Patio at PBCom Tower, all in Makati. It also manages Lola's Kitchen, Pinoy Sizzlers, City Bites, and New York Café, its in-house food service outlets that cater mainly to office workers. For the high-end market, FoodParks owns and operates Museum Café and two other full-size restaurants-Verbena in Tagaytay and Restaurant 5 at Discovery Suites-and is set to open a fourth, the Chelsea Deli, at Serendra Fort Bonifacio early this year.

Andrej explains how the business works: "We conceptualize and build food courts inside office buildings, and then we sublease the space. We also operate our own stalls to keep us grounded in operations. We had to invest heavily in our first five food parks but now that we have gained recognition as a reliable food park management company, we no longer need to invest as much."

Andrej says that even as FoodParks continues to get consulting jobs from resort and hotel developers, the management contract business remains its biggest growth area. Still, FoodParks continues to look for more growth opportunities, and is now eyeing the possibility of leasing the group's food and beverage outlets and of franchising them outside of its own food courts.

The businesses of the Wisniewskis certainly have grown beyond Annabel's expectations. From merely three employees when Raintree Partners started, the whole group now employs over 600 people. Yet Annabel, now in her early 60s, does not intend to stop. "More than just the business, my mission now is to give back to the people who have helped us grow," she says. "We want to make the Philippines a better place by offering decent jobs with decent pay. Our strongest motivation in staying profitable is to generate more jobs."
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Food for thought from the WISNIEWSKIS

Go into a business that you know. More than just being passionate about a business, one also has to learn the business to be able to run it effectively. The Wisniewskis all have hotel management degrees from Cornell University. "Going through the learning curve minimizes the risks," says Annabel.

Stay focused. The Wisniewskis will only go into hospitality management-related ventures where they have the expertise. By doing this, it is easier to set overall strategies and directions even if there are variations in particular lines of the business.

Work on a budget and set realistic targets. Andrej says that on the average, a food stall in one of their food parks requires investments of about P2 million, while a full-service restaurant needs about P15 million. The realistic payback period considering all costs should be around three to four years, and in the case of hotels, cash-on-cash return in seven years. Decent returns for a food stall should be from P20,000 to P30,000 sales per day, and P100,000 per day for restaurants. A return on investment of 18 to 20 percent-and monthly margins of 8 to 12 percent-are reasonable expectations for hotels and restaurants.

Andrej says that in the case of full-service restaurants, a third of the total cost goes to construction. Another third goes to fixtures, furniture, and kitchen equipment, and the remaining third of the costs goes to training, marketing, pre-opening costs, leases, permits, facilitation fees, deposits, and the initial food and beverage inventory.

Invest wisely. Annabel says that to establish the FoodParks brand and a track record, they had to invest heavily in their first few food parks. She adds that it doesn't hurt to diversify and reinvent a business. This way, when one business isn't doing well, another will be able to support it.

Analyze all the risk factors. Restaurants are high-risk businesses. Andrei says eight out of 10 restaurants close down within a year of its opening, and still another closes down in the next three years.

Know your market. Raintree's food parks and restaurants are market-driven. The group analyzes the needs of the market, then comes up with products that address those needs.

For out more tips in the latest issue of Entrepreneur Philippines.