A SPANISH Chamber of Commerce Inc. member-business has bought the franchise of an American restaurant despite the latter posting declining sales.

Maryville, Tennessee-headquartered Ruby Tuesday Inc. announced in a statement January 12 that “it has signed a franchise agreement with Entrepreneurial Recipes Inc.” to open three of its eponymous restaurants in metropolitan Manila.

Ruby Tuesday Inc. franchising president Mark Ingram was quoted in the statement as saying, “This latest franchise expansion will allow us to offer our high-quality dining experience in the fast-growing business climate of these Southeastern Pacific countries.”

In addition to Guam, Hong Kong and South Korea, the Philippines becomes the fourth country in the Pacific Rim with Ruby Tuesdays under development, the publicly traded company said.

It added that principal investors in Entrepreneurial Recipes are a certain Vashi Gagoomal, Patricia del Rosario and Joseph C. Tan.

“They have extensive experience in the restaurant business in the Philippines and have financial interests in a number of Hong Kong-based restaurants. All are established restaurateurs, with franchise experience, and will be owner/operators of the Manila Ruby Tuesday restaurants,” the company said.

Del Rosario is listed as representing the company in the Spanish Chamber of Commerce (Cámara Oficial Española de Comercio Industria y Navegación en Filipinas Inc.), a member-based organization of “companies and individuals who are interested in Philippine-Spanish businesses and the extension of Spanish trade to the Philippines.”

Gagoomal, meanwhile, is cited in a web search as someone connected to Hong Kong-based company Assanmal & Co. (HK) Ltd.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with such experienced operators in Manila for the expansion of our brand,” Ingram was quoted as saying.

The agreement came after the company disclosed in its financial report that its income before income taxes for the past year went down by nearly $20 million to $132.4 million compared with fiscal year 2006 figure of nearly $151 million.

Ruby Tuesday also “reported a diluted loss per share …on a net loss of $10.4 million for the company’s second quarter of fiscal 2008, which ended on December 4, 2007.”

It added that sales for the quarter also decreased nearly 11 percent “while same-restaurant sales at domestic franchise Ruby Tuesday restaurants decreased 8.7 percent, more than double the sales decrease the casual-dining restaurant chain operator declared in the previous period.

“The company said in its latest annual financial report that as of June last year, it “had franchise arrangements with 46 franchise groups which operate Ruby Tuesday restaurants in 25 states and Puerto Rico and in 13 foreign countries.”

Likewise, based on the report, Entrepreneurial Recipes initially paid $135,000 (P5.4 million at US$1=P40) for the franchise of the three restaurants.

“For each restaurant developed under a domestic-development agreement, a franchisee is currently obligated to pay a development fee of $10,000 per restaurant (at the time of signing a development agreement), an initial franchise fee (which typically is $35,000 in the aggregate for domestic franchisees), and a royalty fee equal to 4 percent of the restaurant’s monthly gross sales, as defined in the franchise agreement,” the company said.

However, “development and operating fees for international franchise restaurants vary,” it added.

The company said it plans to open 35 international franchise restaurants outside the United States this year.

THE country’s poor may not only be poor by circumstance but by choice.

In his online column “Statistically Speaking,” National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) secretary-general Romulo Virola said poor and uninformed choices of Filipinos to have more children worsens poverty in the country.

THE South Korean government has signed a two-year framework arrangement with the Philippines worth $300 million and a $20 million-worth Compact Loan Facility to be used for loans for various infrastructure projects of the government.

SENATE leaders are inclined to slash the reported P13.5-billion budgetary insertions made by the House in the 2008 budget bill when the bicameral conference committee gets back to work to reconcile conflicting provisions in the Senate and House versions of the annual money measure, according to Senate President Manuel Villar Jr.

THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) has called upon the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Tourism about changes in existing regulations of the Immigration to conform with the changing times and to encourage more foreign investors and tourists to come into the country.

SARA, Iloilo—Seeing better economic opportunity in a new corn seed technology, farmers in this chiefly agricultural town are now expanding to the upland areas, slowly turning the province into a major corn producer.

A SPANISH Chamber of Commerce Inc. member-business has bought the franchise of an American restaurant despite the latter posting declining sales.

THE United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Unescap) thumbed down the measures implemented by Asian governments, including those made by the Philippine government, to help exporters cope with weaker demand and stronger currencies.

Fortune Life Insurance Co., a Filipino-owned corporation and one of the leading insurance companies, is now accepting payment from its regular policyholders through the Banco de Oro On-Site Payment Facility.