It started with an old, almost forgot ten space in a car park that had been left unused for a few years. The management in Robinsons Mall in Iloilo City had already lowered the rental fee to bargain prices in order to attract tenants. There were no takers until a young local businessman in the community decided to acquire it, based purely on what he now describes as a hunch.

Today, that once abandoned area is a booming Mang Inasal fast-food diner where hundreds of grilled-meat lovers converge everyday, the pioneer and founding father of about 250 franchises all over the Philippines.

“The space came ahead of the concept,” chuckles Edgar “Injap” Sia II, the owner and CEO of Mang Inasal, as he looks back at that turning point seven years ago. “When I saw it, I knew that it could become a magnet for people to come to. I bought the space not knowing what to do with it. I had to come up with a concept.”

One thing was clear to the young Ilonggo businessman’s mind, though—whatever he put up would have to be popular and flexible enough to spread on a nationwide scale. Sia, the son of Filipino-Chinese grocery owners in Roxas City and who had helped in the family enterprise as early as the age of 10, was enjoying modest success as an entrepreneur who dabbled in the laundry and photo printing businesses in his native town. But he had long harbored a dream to come up with a venture that could spread from one end of the archipelago to another.

Food was an obvious choice to a people who had made a celebratory experience out of it—and chicken barbecue was a favored delicacy in Iloilo. Sia did notice though that, “Although there were lots of barbecues, all of them were fine dining. We wanted to serve barbecues but in a fast food and at affordable prices. My wife and I just concocted the mixture at home.” (These days, professional chefs mix the brew and create the menu.)

Organic Progress Sia focused his attention first on his own backyard, the Visayas and Mindanao areas. At first, there were only three Mang Inasal restos during the first year. He added six more restos by the second year. The year 2007 saw more growth with 45 branches. Mang Inasal reached 100 locations in 2009 and as of a few months ago, has expanded to more than 200. Things came to full circle with the putting up of his most recent franchise a few weeks ago in Iloilo, the place where it all started.

Of the 250 restaurants, only 28 are owned by the company—the other 200 are franchises. Sia estimates that four new restos open in a single week. One franchise costs about P7 million which covers the franchise fee, renovation, the deposit with lessor, equipment, and training.

Sia is happy that the growth of his business was a natural progression—“organic, not artificial,” he says. “It’s not a matter of asking my friends to franchise with me. I didn’t wait for them. We just waited for people who believed in the project and saw beyond the present. Many of these franchise owners saw that one branch is doing well and decided to follow.”

That he only put up three restos in the first year was a calculated move. “We wanted to see if the concept was going to work,” he says. There was a reason he waited for six months before launching his second resto in Davao City. “The first three months in our first Iloilo branch, people were coming in but they were just newcomers,” he explains. When the crowds continued for another three months, “we saw that these were regulars who already dined in Mang Inasal as a matter of habit. We knew then that it was time to expand.”

No Shortcuts

He gave another factor that contributed to the growth: “The giants [in the food and franchise business] did not consider Mang Inasal to be a threat. They did not see that a local chain could have a phenomenal growth of 100 stores a year. Because of this, we could pursue our dreams quietly. Big companies can grow slow because of the red tape. While most of our competitors were busy sipping coffee in their posh offices, we were working hard, traveling to four to five cities in a week, negotiating and paving the way for our planned expansion.”

What helped them compete and hold their own against the establishment were a combination of affordable prices, the distinct Pinoy flavor, the strategic locations of their branches, and the unlimited rice offerings, the latter an almost irresistible come-on.

Metro Manila was another market that was initially hard to enter. Sia admits, “We got a grip on the National Capital Region only in 2006. Two years ago, only one out of 10 people knew about us.

Today, nine out of 10 do know about us—but only five of them really go to our franchises regularly or patronize us.”

Still, with the Mang Inasal branch in the Mall of Asia enjoying double-digit growth, he is optimistic that he can capture a greater share. “I was able to penetrate ‘imperial’ Manila,” he smiles, “and I am just a provinciano who has no classmates in the NCR. It’s just a matter of using the front door to make the business succeed—and don’t do any shortcuts.”

He also says that the market is far from being saturated, pointing out that the bigger fast food chains can still put up franchises three times his number. Expansion of the Mang Inasal franchise is just beginning. Sia says, “We will continue to improve our operations and expand our branches nationwide. We are targeting 500 restos by the year 2012.”