Among Filipino entrepreneurs, food and beverage businesses have long been a perennial favorite. Who hasn’t dreamt of owning a cafe and bakery? Or their own chain of popular food stalls? Even with the impressive growth of the F&B industry today, entrepreneurs in the food biz need to ask themselves important questions: What does it take to start a 230+ branch chain like Avocadoria? What is the recipe for success when putting up their own cafe and bakery?

I recently spoke to chef Czarina Sevilla, or Chef Cza, the entrepreneur behind Avocadoria and The Taste of Czaczacza, who is living the Pinoy entrepreneurial dream. The Mansmith Innovation awardee established Avocadoria in 2019, starting with one small, 20-square-meter branch. In just a few years, Avocadoria has spread across the country with more than 200 branches and become a lifeline for Filipino avocado farmers. At the same time, Chef Cza has pursued a dream of hers to build her own cafe and bakery, The Taste of Czaczacza, as well as an upcoming restaurant called Czarina’s.

If you’re a foodie entrepreneur, this story provides a wealth of insight and inspiration into setting up your own food business.

FROM ONE TO 230
So, how did Avocadoria grow from one to 230+ branches? Before Avocadoria, Chef Cza, a hotel and restaurant management graduate, worked in the industry, gaining valuable experience. Initially, she worked in Crowne Plaza where she found mentorship with the chefs there, and a vocation to become a pastry chef. Then she worked for various restaurants, rising to the position of Chef de Partie. Crucially, it was during this time that she created the menu for Avocadoria.

Fast forward to 2019. Deciding to finally establish Avocadoria, Chef Cza began her entrepreneurial work with a loan from her sister, and a 20-square-meter space borrowed from her brother.

Despite founding the company just before the COVID-19 pandemic, she sees the circumstances as an advantage for Avocadoria.

“During the COVID times, you really need to boost your immune system so that you won’t get sick,” she explained. “The number one fruit that can boost your immune system is avocado.”

As 2020 began and lockdown was imposed, many food and restaurant businesses shut down. But Avocadoria kept opening branches on the strength, at the time, of its cake business. In fact, almost two months after opening her first branch, Chef Cza turned Avocadoria into a franchising company.

Taking advice from her sister, she recalled, “[My sister] said, let’s open it as a franchise. She said, there’s nothing like this.” Without hesitation, Chef Cza agreed, despite admittedly not knowing much about franchising. In just three months, she had 111 franchisees.

“If there’s an opportunity, grab it,” she said. “Because if the opportunity comes to you, then you reject it, maybe tomorrow you won’t have that opportunity.”

To entrepreneurs looking to replicate her success, she advises two things: “Number one, your concept needs to be unique. It needs to be impossible to be replicated. And then number two, choose your franchisees. Because it’s going to be a long-term partnership.”

LEARNING FROM FAILURE
Despite the successful run Avocadoria has experienced from the pandemic years to the present, Chef Cza wasn’t always blessed with entrepreneurial success. In fact, her first business failed.

“I wanted to teach,” she said. “I wanted to have my own pastry workshop. Because when I attended workshops, I met different classmates who came from faraway places to do workshops.”

Leaving her work in the restaurant industry, she fulfilled her dream to put up the business. But ultimately the journey wasn’t successful.

“Not everything you want is for you,” she said. And yet, in that failed business venture was the seed for Avocadoria. “Everything happens for a reason,” she said. “Because if it didn’t happen, I wouldn’t be able to do Avocadoria.”

Initially, there were few who believed in Chef Cza’s business idea for Avocadoria. But she insisted on working to make the business a reality.

“If I really want it, I work hard for it,” she said. “Until I prove it’s impossible. That’s how I am. That’s the personality I have. Wala sa dictionary ko ang giving up. (Giving up is not in my dictionary.)”

The first hurdle Avocadoria needed to clear was the perception that avocados were a seasonal fruit. Chef Cza said, “We met a supplier and he said, ‘No, avocado is all year round.’ And then, from that one person, my avocado dream started.”

Today, Avocadoria’s 230+ branches have had a positive effect on not just the food industry but also for avocado farmers. “I saw that we have a lot of avocados here in the Philippines, but there’s no demand,” she said. “There are a lot of avocado farmers, avocado trees from the backyard, but it usually becomes rotten because there’s no demand.

“I can proudly share to all of you that because of Avocadoria, the demand for avocado fruit is good here in the Philippines.”

Moving from strength to strength, Chef Cza Sevilla has grown Avocadoria to near-ubiquitous status while establishing new businesses like The Taste of Czaczacza and Czarina’s. Yet somehow her inspirational story is only the beginning.

“You know what I want now?” she said. “To change the alphabet. So it will be A for Avocado.”

RJ Ledesma (www.rjledesma.com) is a Hall of Fame Awardee for Best Male Host at the Aliw Awards, a multi-awarded serial entrepreneur, motivational speaker, and business mentor, podcaster, an Honorary Consul, and editor-in-chief of The Business Manual. Mr. Ledesma can be found on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

The RJ Ledesma Podcast is available on Facebook, Spotify, Google and Apple Podcasts. Are there entrepreneurs you want Mr. Ledesma to interview? Let him know at ledesma.rj@gmail.com.