Kenneth Kokseng, general manager of Golden Cowrie and Hukad Restaurants, shows their crispy pata, one of the restaurant’s popular dishes.(CDN/LITO TECSON)
Homegrown restaurant Golden Cowrie will set aside about P40 million for its expansion.
Cebu Golden Restaurant Inc., which owns and manages the restaurant, is investing nearly P20 million in a new branch at the soon-to-open SM Seaside City in Cebu and the renovations at its Lahug branch.
Another P20 million will be allotted for a commissary to support its Luzon expansion starting next year, said general manager Kenneth Kokseng.
Three more new branches will be opened this year in Iloilo, Zamboanga and Pagadian, but, Kokseng said, investments in these outlets will be made by franchisees.
The four new branches will bring to 25 the total number of Golden Cowrie restaurants in the Visayas and Mindanao by the end of this year, Kokseng said.
Among these are eight company-owned restaurants in Cebu, including Hukad by Golden Cowrie.
By next year, he said they will expand to Luzon and establish a commissary.
“Ideally, it should be centrally located so maybe somewhere in Taguig or Mandaluyong. The facility should be able to cater to 10 to 15 stores,” Kokseng said.
He said they have been getting a lot of partnership offers from Luzon since 2001. But they were not ready.
“Luzon has about 45 percent of the total population in the country and about 70 percent of the registered businesses are also there. It is a huge and competitive market that we feel we have to be ready for,” Kokseng said.
He added that they were still exploring the best partnership mode for their Luzon expansion.
Kokseng said they will focus on domestic expansion, especially in Luzon, before considering to open outlets in other Southeast Asian countries.
He said they were open to expansion to other Asean countries, although “not in the near future.”
Kokseng said he was confident about the local market, citing the increase in cheaper domestic flights that has fueled domestic tourism.
He said the creation of an Asean economic community will present an opportunity to promote Filipino cuisine in the region.
“While we see a lot of shops opening offering different cuisines, at the end of the day Filipinos still will look for something familiar. They will always look for the comfort foods and that is what we are offering,” he said.
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