Julie’s Bakeshop to open branch in Abu Dhabi in 2014 AFTER its expansion in Tangerang, Indonesia last month, neighborhood bakeshop chain Julie’s Bakeshop is opening another branch in Abu Dhabi in the first quarter of 2014. Art Zamora, general manager of Julie’s Franchising Corp. said yesterday the Abu Dhabi expansion presents huge opportunity for them, given the strong brand awareness of the bakeshop in the Middle East market. “Based on a market study, nine out of 10 know the Julie’s brand,” he said. Zamora said the Cebu-based bakeshop is also receiving a lot of inquiries from potential franchisees in Canada, United States, Hawaii, Guam and India among others. “We expect more international expansions for 2014,” he said. “We are eyeing countries where there is huge concentration of Filipino communities.” Zamora said their Indonesian branch is doing well. He said the plan to open in Indonesia was a strategic decision given the country’s domestic base of 240 million population. Indonesians, he said, are moderate consumers of breads. “Since we exported the business model we have come up with entirely different set of products for the Indonesian market. We actually developed from scratch,” he said. Julie’s Indonesia caters to the mid-market and offers best-selling products that are halal-certified to suit the tastes of the majority of the country’s Muslim population. “We brought to Indonesia the model of a neighborhood chain whose breads are baked on site and fresh, almost hourly,” said Zamora. Julie’s Indonesia is a joint venture project between Julie’s Food Corp. and Filipino couple Rudy and Marlyn Celeste who have lived in Indonesia for the past three decades. Zamora said the expansion in Indonesia was an opportunity for the company to grow on the back of the increased awareness of globalization and upcoming Asean integration by 2015. “We are embarking on continuous development of our products to remain competitive in the market,” he said. “The Indonesia branch will be our learning experience.” Meggie Jose, national marketing manager of Julie’s Franchise Corp. said there are about 500 branches of Julie’s nationwide, 95 percent of which are franchisees. The bakeshop has more than 200 branches in Cebu and more than 80 branches in Mindanao. She said the accelerated developments of mixed-use projects in the country is an additional boost to the company’s growth, on top of other factors that they are known for like the quality, affordable price and innovative bread products.
Posted on: Thu, 28 Nov 2013 07:59:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015