JEDDAH, 27 November — Next to rice, Filipinos eat bread a lot. Eating bread is well entrenched in the diet of many, that currently, there is a boom in specialty cake shops, French-style bakeries, and other retail outlets in the Philippines.
Sensing a market for bread and other wheat-based products, close to 100 OFWs learned to bake bread, cakes and rolls in a recent seminar conducted at the Tropicana Restaurant by the Bagong Bicol Saro nin Jeddah (BBSJ).
Evelyn Santos, president of BBSJ, said that the main objective of the baking seminar is “to help OFWs, especially those in the low-income category, get an idea about baking so they can produce bread and sell them locally, or start a bakery when they go home for good in the Philippines.”
During the two-Friday seminar, Manny Pujado and Allan Tone, two veteran bakers, who have at least 25 years of experience between them, were the resource persons. They showed participants how to prepare ingredients, mix them to make dough for bread like pan de sal, pan de coco, ensaymada, Spanish bread, and other Filipino-style bread.
On the second day, the two bakers demonstrated how to prepare and bake different types of cakes, how to prepare filling, icing, and about decorating. All the bread, cakes and rolls that were produced were given to the participants as snacks.
“My primary reason to attend the seminar is to learn how to bake bread for my children,” says Lerma Benjamin, a mother of two, who came with friend Dorothy Briones, and was so impressed by the presentation. She later said she is now thinking of putting up her own bakery when she goes back home for good.
Some participants had a grand time kneading the dough in the hands-on portion of the seminar. Male and female participants took turns forming the bread of their choice, oftentimes amid cheers or jeers from the other participants.
Cheryl Uson, who had a perfect attendance because she wanted to learn how to cook ube cake, however, said participants should be made to do the actual preparation of the dough, baking, and garnishing or decorating the finished products in future seminars.
The surprise of the seminar was the large number of male attendees. Most of those that Arab News talked to have had experience in baking bread, but would like to find out more.
Pol Rosales and Jun Binag, chairman and general manager respectively of Friends from Saudi Arabia, Incorporated (FSAI), attended the seminar to find out if putting up a bakery is a feasible business. According to them, their group is, at present, operating an aquaculture farm in Pangasinan, and they are mulling to expand into the bakery business.
Business skills
To help these business-minded OFWs, the seminar also had a segment about production cost, pricing, etc., with accountants from PICPA headed by its president Nonato Austria in charge.
Statistics show that there are 30,300 registered bakeries in the Philippines, most of them located in Metro Manila. In all, these bakeries have an annual income of 30 million pesos.
In a passing conversation with Ed Bacason of PICPA, he said that to put up a bakery the capital requirement is at least P100,000. “This entry-level bakery (P100,000 capitalization) is home-based, meaning overhead expenses like water and electricity are not included in the computation. Also, the baking equipment are second-hand, and the projected market are the people of a subdivision.”
During the lecture portion of the seminar, it was determined that the profit margin per piece of the pan de sal that produced was about 52 percent! But the pan de sal that was produced was loaded with special ingredients, and was much bigger (100 grams) than the usual pan de sal (25 grams) sold in bakeries in the Philippines. A “commercial” pan de sal, less special ingredients like egg and butter, would generate a higher profit.
To those who have the capital may want to go into franchising. A visit to the website of an association of Filipino franchisers reveal that a franchise for Julie’s Bakeshop is available for P500,000. (For more details, please visit www.filfranchisers.com, or visit www.dti.gov.ph and follow the links to Philippine International Trading Corporation (www.dti.gov.ph/pitc/) and its “Order Negosyo” program.)
Bacason said PICPA would conduct its third seminar on franchising business next month.
For those raring to start a bakery, BBSJ president Evelyn Sanots said that the most important job they must do is record everything. “Capital will be diminished when there is no recording. Maski ano lang yan, dapat ma-record kung ano ang kinuha, at dapat bayaran after payday para intact pa rin ang capital.”
Levy Factor, one of the presenters in the seminar, said that the secret in baking is doing it. He said the saying “practice makes it perfect” holds true in baking. “Sa baking ma tinapay man or cake, practice lang yan. Wala talagang sikreto dyan, and mga sikreto sa baking matutunan na lang yan kung palaging nagluluto.”
