|
Lucio
Tan may not have any short-term plans to put up another
hotel in the country but he certainly has big plans for
China.
Tan’s
48-story Eton Hotel in
Shanghai
is now operational and has “borrowed” Century Park Hotel
general manager Paul Gill to run the business. (As a
result, Century Park’s officer-in-charge is comptroller
Daniel Sy).
Another
hotel, this time in
Xiamen
(read: hometown of most Chinese-Filipinos), is in the
works.
*****
Several
big Philippine-based consumer goods advertisers are in
discussions with the sales team of Sparrowhawk Media,
which operates the Hallmark channel in Asia, for
placements in The Oprah Winfrey Show starting
this Monday.
Unlike
other cable channels that also feature Winfrey’s hugely
successful program, Hallmark will be airing the current
season (read: only two weeks behind the United States,
which is already in the middle of the show’s 20th
season).
*****
The
Presidential Commission on Good Government will be
quietly rebidding the MetroWalk property in
Pasig within the next two weeks. You see, the current
four-year lease ended yesterday.
There’s
talk the current lessee, which includes former Ilocos
Sur Gov. Luis “Chavit” Singson among its stockholders,
will negotiate for a new 10-year lease. There’s also
talk that a new multistory building will be put up to
accommodate more “gimmick places.”
*****
Did you
know 1:
There’s a sign near Metro Manila’s international airport
that a Marriott Hotel is on the rise.
This
will be the country’s second Marriott Hotel, which
basically caters to businessmen. The first Mariott Hotel
is a joint venture with Ayala Land Inc. in Cebu City.
Did you
know 2:
Banana leaves used in the restaurant business as plates
(read: the best kind is called butuan because the fruit
has lots of seeds) go for about P4 each in the wet
market. These are sold in bundles of 25 leaves. At the
farm level, the price of each leaf is only 50 centavos.
*****
Here’s
an interesting franchising concept. A variant of the
rent-to-own concept, it is being pushed by Association
of Filipino Franchisers Inc. member Carson Tan for his
Magic Waffle brand.
Basically aimed at would-be-franchisers who are not
quite sure that this is the business for them, Tan’s
model calls for minimum three-month commitment, broken
down into cash upfront for the lease of P15,000 and a
security bond of P35,000.
After
the third month, the franchisee could opt to close (in
which case, the security bond is returned) or could
decide to go on (in which case, he has two choices): The
franchisee can choose to either pay for the three-year
franchise at P5,000 a month over a two-year period or
pay a lump sum of P50,000. |
