BUSINESS BITS

Watch and munch
LUIZ BAGUIORO

He’d always wanted to become an entrepreneur, so in late 2000 Hans Tan, aged 25, put up Beyond Innovations Inc., a distributor of home theater systems when home theaters were still a novelty. Tan had worked as a consultant with the accounting firm SGV & Company for three years, helping a number of firms draw up sales and marketing strategies and improve their efficiency.

But now he was on his own. He had to sell the idea to his parents to borrow P10 million in capital. They were garment exporters and hard businessmen, and they considered his business so risky that they charged him higher rates than the banks imposed. He worked alone in the first four months.

“I was the salesman, order taker, delivery man, driver, collector, accountant, warehouseman and company president rolled into one,” says Tan, a civil engineer. “I approached the appliance stores one by one. On a typical day, I would spend one to two hours encoding orders and make delivery rounds up to 8 p.m.”

Tan recouped his investments and repaid his loan in two years. The peso’s steep depreciation in the last three years has cut disposable incomes and squeezed companies like Tan’s, which imports all its merchandise. But beyond Innovations survived by cutting overhead and increasing efficiency. It wasn’t long before it captured 20 percent of the market.

Encouraged, Tan teamed up with a friend to put up Krispy Kimpao DeliCorp. The joint venture opened in October 2002 to sell fried buns stuffed with ham and cheese, tuna, chicken teriyaki or beef curry. “I got the idea from the sweet fried buns or paos sold in the streets of Shanghai and eaten by the Chinese either with tea or milk,” Tan says.

“Our chefs from Honk Kong concocted the fillings, and we called them kimpao, meaning golden bun.” Their products were tasty. But unlike siopao or empanada, people didn’t know anything about them, so Tan started selling them in bazaars and trade fairs. “They sold like hotcakes, and we got a lot of inquiries for a franchise – up to 800 in one exhibit alone,” Tan says.

After sales hit 10,000 pieces a day, Krispy Kimpao started its expansion and planned to have 15 outlets by June this year. It aims to have at least 40 outlets by the end of the year, and between 80 and 100 stores by April next year.

Tan, naturally, is elated by his success. “Ever since I was a kid I knew I would be an entrepreneur ever,” he says. “Now I am.”