F&B service provider expects upbeat growth

CEBU, Philippines – Food and beverage service provider Cebu Hotel and Restaurant Solutions (CHRS) expects a positive growth this year as Cebu’s tourism industry continues to thrive amid the gloomy backdrop of a global financial meltdown.

CHRS is in the business of providing food and beverage products and services to the city’s consumer market specifically the food and hospitality sectors and other tourism-related industries.

Established February of last year, CHRS’ optimism is anchored on the province’s thriving tourism industry, which it has already successfully tapped.

CHRS is one of the many companies under the Cebu Country Farmers Market Inc., which also includes other companies like The Gustavian and The Artisan Gourmet Chef under its wing.

In an interview with its sales and marketing director Caroline H. Cañares, she said that CHRS started as a consumer of kitchen facilities for their own company’s chain of restaurant business but since they saw the huge potential market for this kind of services and products in Cebu, they started to cater to hotels, resorts, and restaurants selling their own fabricated products.

Now, CHRS is meeting the rising demand of new restaurants, bars, and clubs in the city for their professional kitchen facilities in their operations.

The company now designs and manufactures solutions for their every client’s needs ranging from complete stainless steel products, oven ranges, deep fryers, chilling units, toasters, bakery equipments as well as China Wares, glass wares, buffet wares, among others.

Cañares said that after they put up their own showroom in Mandaue City, they have had received positive feedbacks from their clientele making them achieve a good first year in terms of sales.

She said that despite having lean months, they still did not experience slowdown of sales even with today’s crisis because more new developments in the city still continue to come into shape.

“We were able to achieve our return of investment even for last year’s operation alone. Now 2009 is a promising year for us and because there is a crisis we are projecting conservative targets of 30 percent more of what we were able to rake in from last year,” said Cañares.

She said that more than just the hotel and restaurant industry, they are also eyeing the bakery sector, coffee shop industry and even households and small and medium entrepreneurs who are into canteens and catering services.

“We continue to explore and expand the market. There are several growth areas for us here considering the new developments in the area. Even with competition, we are sure that we can have a piece of that big market. There will always be business that will require our services,” said Cañares.

She said that after their apparent success in penetrating the Cebu market, they are already gearing up towards exploring other areas like the huge Luzon-based consumers.

Cañares said that they are looking at the possibility of putting up another showroom in Metro Manila soon that can service the huge market in Luzon.

Right now CHRS’ operations in Cebu is also servicing the client-base all over Visayas and Mindanao areas such as Iloilo, Caticlan, Tacloban, Davao, Dumaguete, Bacolod and Bohol. — Rhia de Pablo (THE FREEMAN)