Having his cake and eating it too

Published : Monday, September 12, 2011 00:00

Written by : KIM BERNARDO-LOKIN SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR 

Enrico Dee

THERE is a popular saying that goes, “do the things that you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” This adage rings true for Enrico “Ricky” Dee, who was born into a family of entrepreneurs whose family was into construction, a lumber and hardware store, but who himself eventually took a path all his own. Dee is the president and chief executive officer of the Foodlink Group of Companies, whose food businesses range from numerous fast-food stalls, to chains of restaurants under his name.

Like most Filipino-Chinese families, Dee started to hone his entrepreneurial skills by helping his father in their construction business. But Dee says he felt that there was “no value-added” into the business because it is a commodity trade. According to him, “a wood will still be a wood, not until you make it into a door. So I felt that I needed to do something with value, that I can add more to the value.”

His opportunity came one day in 1985, right outside their village in Bel-Air Makati, when a food court opened. Dee got one of the stalls and put up what he described as a “very small stall selling Chinese food a la carte” and he named it “Chin-Chin” after his son Chino.

He recalls that the food court setting was a new industry at the time and the concept of the “big malls” were just starting and they were able to ride with the progress. Dee says they started opening in the food courts in malls like SM North Edsa and eventually had branches in Cubao and Makati under the names “Chin’s Express,” “Inihaw Express” and “Handaan Express.”

Today he says they have roughly about 80 stalls in all major malls all over Luzon. The Foodlink Group of Companies is structured into three divisions: the fast-food where they operate the stalls which employ about a thousand people; the second division would be the stand-alone restaurants which include “Mesa,” “La Mesa,” “Mangan,” “Crocodile” and two high-end restaurants “Kai” (Japanese) and “Cerveseria” (Spanish/Tapas Bar) in Greenbelt 3. The third division is the food concessions, where Foodlink handles the companies’ in-house canteens and feed about 25,000 people a day. In this category, Dee says they partnered with big companies like Toyota, the Ayala-owned Integrated Microelectronics Inc. and basically all tech companies in Batangas, Laguna, Cavite, Honda Philippines and still many other multinational companies inside industrial parks.

Looking back he says, his entry into the food business was just all “by accident.” Whenever asked, this accomplished restaurateur would half-jokingly say that he simply “loves to eat and lives to eat.” But adds that he also must have been influenced to go into the food business because he comes from a large family that loves to gather around good & well-cooked meals and this is where his palate was probably enhanced. In return, he must have also influenced his family somehow when he went into the food business because one of his brothers eventually became a chef too out of their love for eating “good food.”

In analyzing their sector as a whole, Dee says that right now there seems to be a “correction time” in their industry. He thinks this is because there is a saturation of the market already and what he calls a “cannibalization of the market.” According to him, this is brought about by too many choices and too many malls within the same geographical area, who service only the same number of customers. On the other hand, he says this situation is good for today’s modern Filipino families, who now have so much more choices at very reasonable prices. As a result, Dee observes that more families now prefer to just “eat out” instead of going to the market to buy the food ingredients and cooking them at home, an option that is totally time-consuming and takes away precious time bonding with the family instead.

Looking forward, he says that the “take-out and delivery” will be the next area of growth. This is because the trend is changing especially for the average Filipino families whose palates and knowledge of food choices from around the world had increased tremendously, when compared to a decade or two ago. He also notes the rise in the number of culinary schools in the country and being a “chef” as a career choice.

As for Dee, he says he simply prefers to be called a businessman, especially because he says he doesn’t even cook, although he is very keen on the taste and presentation of food. He also loves to travel with his wife and family, he says, to keep himself attuned to the latest trends in the food business globally or what he calls “the feeding of the eyes.” Travel is also a great way for him to unwind and spend quality time with his family and friends.

Right now Dee says he is going into another type of business—real estate and mall development especially in the provinces. He has put up another company for this, the CentralMall which partnered with the Save More supermarkets of the SM Group of Companies. He explains that this move is actually related to his currrent type of business and is part of natural progression. But that story will have to be for another time, another day, he says. Suffice it to say, he’s happy to have pursued his passion for eating and make it very profitable for him. Its also one good example of “having your cake and eating it too.”