A young entrepreneur who employs more than a hundred people needed to tap her creative side to keep her dine-in restaurant at a busy nook of Quezon City afloat amid the pandemic.
“Our sales have gone down 80 percent because of the pandemic. That is a huge blow to our company because our rent is still running. We tried to do online orders, we tried to do dine-in, so we accumulated Meralco and other utility bills,” says Alexangela ‘Gila’ Salvador, the 25-year-old founder of MadCafe, a popular restaurant along Congressional Ave.
Salvador says amid the serious financial and health challenges, she chose to keep the restaurant open and her staff on the payroll.
“Even if no customer comes, we still have to pay the salaries of our staff. It was really tough on us and has depleted some of my savings, but overall we are still in a good position as a company. It is a good thing we prepared and saved before the pandemic. If not, we would have been among the companies that closed down their doors,” says Salvador, who recently joined the 2020 Binibining Pilipinas beauty pageant.
Salvador runs an interior design and construction company, a chain of restaurants and a realty development company that is building her own hotel in Siargao Island.
Her companies include Madhouse Design Studio, MadCafe Inc. and Maddev Realty Development Corp. that develops lots into commercial spaces and residences.
Salvador says MadCafe was doing well before the pandemic, attracting families, office workers and students. “Before Covid, there were lots of people in the restaurant from all walks of life. We have a play area, a dining area and a study area. It is a combination of different things to do because we want to attract families and coffee goers,” she says.
“When Covid hit, it hit our business so bad that the main business model was replaced. No one wanted to dine in. As an entrepreneur, I wanted to figure out the way to survive this pandemic and keep my restaurant and to give jobs continuously to the workers,” she says.
Salvador says many restaurants had to close shop when the government imposed the enhanced community quaratine, with only delivery and drive-thru services allowed to operate.
Inventive and resourceful, she used her resources and manpower as a contractor to transform the parking lot of Mad Cafe into a pop-up drive-thru space, with a kiosk in the middle.
“I have noticed that under quarantine, the restaurant model with drive-thru were the ones that were able to do well. Even throughout the ECQ, they were able to offer their drive-thru services. We wanted to try out this model, so it would be more convenient for our clients to get drinks and food from us,” she says.
MadCafe began its drive-thru services in June, offering drinks such as coffee fix, milk tea and fruit tea as well as frozen food.
“I thought about the drive-thru in June when the dining option was open at limited capacity. We were able to open only at 30-percent capacity and I noticed that even during the entire day, only one or two tables would be occupied. People were still afraid and I was like how could I get these drinks and food to the people rather than just bring them to their houses by online order or ask them to come here,” she says.
Salvador says it took them only three days to build the entire pop-up store and drive-thru space because of her involvement in construction.
“I realized that online orders would not be enough to sustain the business and banking on dine-in with bigger staffing and electricity consumption would also be ineffective. I took a leap of faith and put up a drive-thru in my own parking lot where people can just drive by to get either their coffee fix or milk tea cravings,” she says.
“So right now, at Congressional Ave., we have 5,000 car traffic, and we have a 1-percent market capture per day. That is much more than what we can get with the dine-in under quarantine,” she says.
“The maximum capacity of the drive-thru is 100 drinks a day. Before with dine-in, we were just able to sell 20 drinks. Right now, we are able to sell more than 70 drinks a day,” she says. “Residents here are happy that they can just drop by and get their coffee, milk tea or even frozen food like kare kare.”
Salvador plans to keep the drive-thru services until December and replicate this in other locations through franchising.
“We want to create a new franchise model which is a drive-thru cafe where we will be planting all around Metro Manila the convenience of getting coffee or milk tea,” she says.
“Drive-thru has helped our business a lot, but I am not saying it has helped us not to have layoffs. We haven’t laid off anyone in the company, but our work force which was 30 per shift is now only seven. We are just fortunate that we have other branches opening soon, so that our staff will be spread across those branches. The drive-thru has helped us a lot in terms of salary, our rentals, our electricity bills. It helped us survive until the end of the year,” says Salvador.
Salvador targets to have five MadCafe branches with drive-through services this year. “It is sad to say that a lot of businesses have closed down on good locations. We want to try to get those locations. For franchising, we construct and design, provide the equipment, provide the trained staff, provide the initial stocks and the management of the kiosks. MadCafe will manage everything for them,” she says.
Salvador encourages other restaurateurs not to lose hope. “For those who had to close down their shops, it is not over. It is just a setback for you. You can change the plan. I always say, write your plans in pencil, but your goals in pen. Because you have to prepare for changes. You might close your doors today, but that doesn’t mean it will be closed forever. You strategize, take a step back and be creative. Think about how you can get back on your feet and become much stronger than before,” she says.
