Keeping an eye on India

Jollibee Foods Corp. president and chief executive officer Tony Tan Caktiong is right now in Shanghai, the China headquarters of the 90-store Yonge food chain which Jollibee bought for about $22 million.

With the projected opening of 100 stores per year starting 2006, Mr. Tan Caktiong is seriously thinking of putting up a commissary in China – right now, everything is being outsourced – even as his people are quietly studying India, with a population second only to China in Asia.

Following Jollibee’s China foray, this probably means buying an existing India-based quick-service restaurant chain (read: no Jollibee Champs are going to be served there) for around $20 million, all internally generated.

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When he committed P200 million to Ateneo de Manila University, John Gokongwei Jr. clearly meant more than putting up the building for Ateneo’s School of Business, which is currently headed by Rudy Ang.

Right now, the school is in the middle of a three-semester business acceleration program, where students must come up with a product prototype that they must be able to sell by the end of school year 2005-2006, with free consultancy from the managers of the Gokongwei Group of Companies.

One of the students currently enrolled in this program is Karlo Matel, a business management senior who, together with fellow Ateneans Aaron Jarveen Ho and Steven Alexis Ng, represented the Philippines in the just concluded 1st regional grand finals for IT entrepreneurs organized by HSBC.

As part of their prize for being country winners, the Philippine team (which won the best presentation award in the regional finals) and the other teams representing Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand have been given by HSBC’s new regional chairman Vincent Cheng a one-week study tour to the University of Washington in Seattle, USA.

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Did you know 1: Former Shell Phils. chief executive officer Oscar Reyes looks much younger and happier these days as a private sector consultant. Then again, not having people associate you with price increases is definitely not a beauty secret.

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Did you know 2: All the 90-plus outlets of HBC headed by Rosalinda Ang-Hortaleza are company-owned and it’s not for lack of trying from would-be franchisees who are interested in the average payback period of about a year.

The beauty and personal care chain, which is a sister company of Splash Corp., retails toll-manufactured products to both beauty parlors and individuals.

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Did you know 3: In the span of two weeks, a European fashion brand increased its bag prices in Hong Kong by the equivalent of about P6,000, perhaps in preparation for the annual HK super sale in a couple of weeks.