The Filipino Entrepreneur

Ricky was already running Manila ice Cream Company for two years catering to restaurants, kiddie parties and other events when he acquired Milkin Corporation. At the time He didn’t even know that Milkin owned Fiorgelato, his favorite ice cream brand in college. Gelato and ice cream are not the same according to him. Gelato, which means frozen delight in Italian, has significantly less butterfat than ice cream, so you taste its full flavor immediately. It is also denser than ice cream, producing an intensely flavored and creamier dessert. To make real gelato, he studied Italian ice cream making techniques and started making ice cream using the most advanced equipment. Now they produce around 500 gallons daily with Italian ingredients and local fruits.

They offer up to 37 flavors in the market and have developed 72 in reserve at that time. To enhance his knowledge of gelato, he took up a course in ice cream making at Pennsylvania State University’s Science and Technology Creamery in the United States, he is the only Filipino to complete the course. He also graduated from the Carpigiani Gelato Ice Cream University in Winston, Salem, in North Carolina. As soon as he took over the helm, we mapped out a 10 year program where he saw franchising in the first five years and becoming a leading provider of quality ice cream and catering services in the next five.

“I’m proud to say that we’ve been able to reach our target every year, but it was only in our third year that the business turned profitable.” He said. “Now we have two sources of revenue those coming from our scooping stations and those from Milkin’s subsidiary, Designers Ice Cream Manufacturing Company, which accepts orders and produces gelato for leading restaurants.” Today Fiorgelato has 50 outlets situated in the malls and selected schools and offices he run 10 of them and franchisees the rest. He also opened seven Fiorgelato cafes, which were patterned after Italian street cafes, and a couple of Gelateria Pasticcera.

They have pushed the concept of the Gelateria and Pasticceria that combines a restaurant and a cafe. Each Fiorgelato franchise costs P180,000 for schools and P200,000 for the malls way back in 2004. The return of investment is one to two years, but the record is one-and-a half months. Our newer franchisees recoup their investment faster which is three to five months-because the product has matured and the brand is more recognizable. Now they are ready to expand abroad. They already have a branch in the United States, still looking to expand first in Asia.

His measure of success is if the people working for you are growing. All these years Milkin Corporation has refined in its employees a culture of trust and fidelity to the company, dedication to work, affection to co workers, and honor to themselves. Fiorgelato is a family-oriented corporation and treat their franchisees and employees as family, and that’s the reason most of their employees who were there from the start are still with them.

[tag]Fiorgelato[/tag]