A sucker for the young and good-looking

Still following the trail set by Henry Sy’s SM chain of department and supermarket stores, John Gokongwei Jr’s Robinsons is putting up its newest department store at the Festival Mall (along the same road as SM South).

The department store will be an anchor store of Festival, which is a development of the Filinvest Group controlled by Andrew and Mercedes Gotianun. As everybody knows, the Gotianun couple and their children have tons of experience in land development but nada about the retail trade.

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Supermarket finds 1: Dressed chicken deliveries to supermarkets remain iffy despite assurances made by Agriculture Secretary Luis Lorenzo Jr. and Trade officer-in-charge Adrian Cristobal Jr.

And when the deliveries do come, the chickens are grabbed, fought for (politely, that’s true, in some high-end supermarkets) and gone in a couple of minutes.

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Supermarket finds 2: Mura Sarap Foods president Roberto Muñoz has come up with bagoong or shrimp paste in sachet. The product is said to be going the way of shampoos in sachet – very fast.

Robert Munoz’s packaging strategy is geared towards two markets. One is the overseas Filipino worker who is not allowed to use his/her employer’s refrigerator. The other is the local market, both the single condo dwellers who can’t finish a huge bottle in a short period of time and the D-E market who can’t afford the price of the bottle.

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Bank notes 1: So, President Macapagal-Arroyo is attending next Wednesday’s anniversary of the Development Bank of the Philippines.

The President has been attending DBP’s anniversary celebration (while sending then Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho to attend those of other government financial institutions) for the past three years – in part because she is a sucker for young, good-looking chief executive officers like Simon Paterno.

Prior to DBP, Mr. Paterno handled the Philippine business for investment bank, JP Morgan.

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Bank notes 2: The Singapore-based Keppel Group might still indirectly get its hands on some of the 29-percent stake in Equitable PCI Bank which Social Security System president Corazon de la Paz is selling to Banco de Oro chaired by Teresita Sy Coson.

You see, Keppel is the partner of Ms. Coson’s father, Henry Sy, in the development of the high-end (a first for Mr. Sy whose core market is the C-D consumer) The Podium, which covers the mall as well as the mixed condominium building behind it.