The enduring story of Cebu enterprise built on chocolate

THE town of Argao in Cebu, famous for picturesque beaches and scenic spots, is also the home of a 75-year old enterprise that is now building an ecosystem to sustain lives, livelihood and the environment.

Edgar and Efren Lanutan took over the family-owned tableya manufacturing business in 2008 after their parents retired from running the then micro enterprise, initiating a rebranding strategy to market the product as a world-class native chocolate brand.

After nearly 75 years in operations, Guilang Tableya is turning a new leaf with a new approach to sustainability, from sourcing of materials to processing and packaging.

“We have started a program where we invite people to plant cacao. We give the seedlings for free and when the trees bear fruits we buy back the cacao beans,” said Edgar, the younger of the two Lanutan brothers.

The initiative has become sort of a trading practice in the municipality wherein farmers come to trade or swap the dried cacao beans for tableya products or get paid in cash.

Joshua Lanutan, son of Edgar and a third generation chocolatier, said that while the business continues to expand, the issue of sustainability - the reliability

Singapore-based Pinay named Asia’s best female chef

FILIPINO chef Johanne Siy of Lolla in Singapore wins the Asia’s Best Female Chef Award for 2023. Siy is the first Singapore-based chef to win the award, voted for by the 300plus members of the Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants Academy.

This accolade celebrates women in gastronomy who push the boundaries of excellence with their skills, techniques and craft.

The Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2023 in-person awards ceremony will be held on of March 28, 2023 in Singapore, in collaboration with host destination partner Singapore Tourism Board, marking the first full-scale gathering of Asia’s gastronomic community since 2019.

“Johanne’s understanding of the provenance of ingredients and her flair for presenting cuisine that is produce-driven, alongside mindful inclusions of the culinary traditions she grew up with, make her a worthy recipient of this award,” said Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants director for content William Drew. Siy has been Lolla’s head chef since 2020 and led the restaurant to their first placement in the list of Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants 2022 at No.75.

Lauded for its considered emphasis on produce, seasonality and intentional simplicity, Siy’s food spotlights Asian-inspired modern European cuisine with nods to her Filipina heritage. Dishes like crab ‘relleno’, aligue sauce and kaffir lime feature the ‘aligue’ sauce from the Philippines —a paste of river crab tomalley and aromatics – which is served within the crab’s own shell.

Born in Dagupan, Philippines, Siy’s experiences include apprenticing under chefs Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin and Daniel Boulud of Café Boulud and a 4-year tenure at Restaurant André in Singapore. She spent years enriching her skills in Nordic kitchens, farms and forests with stints at Noma and Relae in Copenhagen, and Fäviken in Sweden.

of raw materials sourcing, good corporate practices and the effects to environment - become a conundrum for the enterprise and its owners to ponder on. And that ’s when the enterprise decided to put sustainability at the core of its operations.

He said the enterprise is confident it will continue to get a good load of cacao beans from Davao, but as demand accelerates, the need to have a secure source of beans prompted the enterprise to collaborate with local farmers on how to start increasing Argao’s cacao production.

“We plan on reducing our dependence on Davao-sourced beans. In the next 8 years we hope to, at least, increase the share of Argao cacao to 12 percent from the current 3 percent.

Right now, we are still 97 percent dependent on Davao for our beans sourcing,” he said. Guilang moves as much as 16 metric tons (MT) of cacao beans monthly from Davao. This much beans can process about 12 MT of tableya which are marketed locally and are also exported abroad to the US, China, Taiwan and indirectly to Australia.

The brand is available in two states in the US where there are thriving Filipino communities. The Lanutans export tableya directly to Pacific Island Supermarket that has 34 stores spread across California and Nevada.

The product is also visible in commercial quantities in stores in Fukien and Fujian, China. However, importers from Taiwan has a different use for Guilang Tableya.

“Out of more than 100 tableya makers in the Philippines, we were chosen to supply their chocolate requirement for pharmaceutical use. I believe they are producing skin care products using tableya,” Edgar said. This weekend, the father and son tandem, is bound to Singapore and Thailand on prospects of new partnership, optimistic to land a contract or two.

The enterprise is looking forward to increasing its output to 15.6 MT of processed tableya to serve the increasing demand for native chocolate.

“Back in 1948, we used to produce about 80 kilos daily or about 2 metric tons of tableya monthly. From that we have increased our capacity to 12 metric tons monthly. We have also mechanized our operations by buying machineries from China. Our machines are similar to the machines used by Hershey Philippines,” Edgar said.

Sustainability in packaging is a novel practice that the enterprise is religiously observing. From using plastic as packaging material, the enterprise transitioned to using thick cardboard-like paper as its main material for packing the products. With the help of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) who linked the business to packaging experts from the University of the Philippines, Guilang Tableya is now sustainably packed in round paper cylinders, a seal of quality and sustainability.

ORIGINS

Guilang Tableya is an iconic brand in Cebu from its origins in Argao and the influence of its pioneer owner, Manang Guilang, which was how Edgar’s mother, Nanay Miguela, was known in the community.

Edgar recounted how his parents and

Chocolate entrepreneurs Edgar a tub of cacao beans become the native chocolate brand that is now famous in and out of the country.

“Back in those days, there were many tableya makers in our town. So my mother and father started innovating by experimenting on the temperature and speed of the roasting process. If you’re wondering why our chocolate has a slight smokey texture, it is because of the selected wooden chips we use to roast the beans,” he explained.

“I guess you can call them the first innovators, being ahead of their peers at a time when the word innovation and innovator are still unheard of,” he added.

The concept to improve the taste by using wooden chips came 3 years after the business started. The marked improvement in taste and texture outpaced other tableya makers in town.

Rebranding the brand came as novel idea when Edgar joined a training course at the DTI in late 2008. By 2009 the product has assumed the Guilang tableya brand.

SUSTAINABLE PRODUCTS

Innovation is in the DNA of the owners of the business. This 2023, Guilang will be introducing a new product - a ready-to-drink (RTD) sikwate, the Cebuano term for chocolate drink - that will come in two flavors.

“What is unique to this product is that we will be using 100 percent tableya, when others are using cocoa powder. The first product will be ready-to-drink sikwate and the other

BNPL provider announces conservative growth forecast in 2023

ATOME, the fastest growing buy now, pay later (BNPL) provider is looking at a conservative growth forecast of 5 to 8 percent in 2023, following the massive growth of its gross merchandise value (GMV) that increased by 30 times over since its launch in the Philippines in late 2021.

“At some point in time it will slow down. The growth, I believed with be anchored on business development. It always is. The more merchants we’re going to have ,the more growth we’re going to generate because there will be more options for the consumers. The other drivers is to make sure to stay competitive and esnsure that your product answers the needs of Filipino consumers,” says Atome Philippine general manager Zine Neil.

The firm expects to grow its retailer base to as much as 2,500 by end-2023 as it other explore more promotional partnerships with banks.

“We’re aiming to partner with more banks to give more discounts to consumers because they need to have a card for them to be Atome use and we aim, as well, to expand our partnerships with banks to support the growth of our business,” Nedil disclosed.

Already, Atome is backed with strong fi- nancial partners in the Southeast Asia Region, giving strong financial muscle to support the platforms Philippine operations. Atome is a unit of Advance Intelligence Group. While the BNPL provider has numerous partnerships with global retailers and virtual and offline marketplaces, it is focused on having more known Philippine brands onboard the platform.

Online and offline retailers partners of Atome cut across fashion, beauty, travel, electronics and sports categories. Key merchants include Agoda, Dyson, Inditex Group that include Zara, Bershka, Pull & Bear and Massimo Dutti, Nike, Penshoppe, Rustan’s, SM Store, Xiaomi and Zalora.

In recent months, Watsons Philippines and leading Philippine fashion retailer Suyen – which distributes brands such as Bench, Human, Kashieca, Cotton On, Aldo, Charles & Keith, Jo Malone, Mothercare, American Eagle and La Senza – also added

Atome’s checkout option across hundreds of physical store outlets across the country.

This brings Atome’s total offline footprint to almost 7,000 physical stores in the Philippines. To further provide access to affordable credit among the unbanked and underbanked, Atome – which stands for “A-vailable TO ME” – also soft launched the Atome Card in the in the Philippines last August 2022. Atome card, which gives consumers a pre-approved line of Atome credit of up to P200,000, received a strong response with over 120,000 registrations during the invite-only phase. Seventy percent of applicants are millennials, between 25 to 40 years old.

To enhance the overall user experience, Atome also has an in-app loyalty rewards program, Atome+ which allows consumers to earn points when they check out using Atome, to offset future purchases, as well as redeem rewards and experiences.

Atome is also planning to move beyond pay-in-3 deferred payments, and will soon launch multi-tenures plans of 6 and 12 months respectively, in response to strong demand and interest from both retailers and consumers.