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Batangueño clan rolling
in dough for 57 years
By Marlon Alexander Luistro
Southern Luzon Bureau
First Posted 11:26pm (Mla time) 07/15/2007
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TANAUAN CITY--In 1950, couple Aurelio and Celinda
Pantoja arrived for the first time at their inherited house
in Barangay 4 in this city in Batangas and found a wornout oven in the backyard.
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The old appliance inspired Aurelio to start right then
and there a bakery business, which they called
Panaderia Pantoja.
With a capital of P50,000, Aurelio rehabilitated the
oven, hired a few bakers from neighboring Batangas
towns, and kept the business going.
Back then, there were no mechanical equipment such
as mixers, dividers, dough rollers and rounders. All
bread products were hand-made.
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Since slicers were not yet available, bakers would have
to use knives to slice loaves of bread.
Aside from owning the business himself, Aurelio
performed multiple jobs of delivery man, purchaser and
production manager of the bakery.
Celinda handled the day-to-day operations of the
bakery.
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"It's a funny thing that, when my lola (Celinda) got
pregnant, she would even bring her relatives in Balayan
to man the bakery and sell," said Anthony Pantoja,
Panaderia Pantoja's vice president for operations.
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During those times, Tanauan only had two bakeries-Panaderia Pantoja and Almeda Bakery.
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The Pantoja couple virtually relied on "word of mouth"
to market their products in town such as pandesal, tasty
bread, and paborita and jacobina biscuits.
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These limitations, however, did not hinder the Pantojas from fulfilling their dream.
In the 1970s, their son Arturo took over the business and started to mechanize its operations and hire more
people.
By the time new bakeries emerged in town, Panaderia Pantoja was no longer affected since it had already built
and maintained good relations with its loyal customers.
Today, Panaderia Pantoja has grown into a corporation and is now one of the province's largest bakeries, with
franchises in the towns of Rosario, Balayan, Nasugbu, Lemery and Tuy, and the cities of Lipa, Batangas and
Tanauan.
It also has two outlets in De La Salle-Lipa.
Hot pandesal
Although pandesal is available in any other bakery, Panaderia Pantoja takes pride with its trademark hot pandesal,
sold at P2 apiece, which has attracted generations of loyal followers in Tanauan.
High demand for the product convinced the Pantoja family to sell hot pandesal both in the morning (5 a.m. to 8
a.m.) and afternoon (3 p.m. to 7 p.m.), which reportedly established a trend in their customers' lifestyle.
"The selling point of our hot pandesal is that it is pugon-baked," said Anthony. "People say bread cooked in a
"pugon" or brick oven are more delicious since they are provided with different kinds of aroma and flavoring."
He said their bakery usually mixes cooking oil from lechon baboy with their ingredients for pandesal, which add to
the taste.
What puzzles the 29-year-old entrepreneur is that their customers would eat hot pandesal both in the morning and
afternoon.
"Surprisingly, some customers would even line up and wait just to buy pandesal," he added.
Hot pandesal is also a product of the bakery's "quality-first" attitude.
Anthony said they would not sacrifice the quality of their bread despite skyrocketing prices of ingredients such as
flour.
If the recipe calls for one kilo of sugar, he said, they would exactly put one kilo, and so forth.
To adapt with the price increase, Panaderia Pantoja either adjusts its existing bread prices or produces more
products.
Anthony said their bakery targets the B and C market mainly because of their product price, while most Tanauan
residents are from the working class.
Depending on the bulk of sales and prices of ingredients, the bakery usually gains a 10-percent average net
income from monthly sales.
http://business.inquirer.net/money/features/view_article.php?article_id=76804
11/4/2008
Business - Batangueño clan rolling in dough for 57 years - INQUIRER.net
Page 2 of 2
Peak months are June, October, November and December, which mark the opening of classes and the celebration
of Christmas.
Lean months, on the other hand, are March, April and May, following the end of classes and the start of fruit
harvest season.
Staying power
It is rare for a bakery to stay in business for 57 years, and Anthony attributes their family's "love for the business"
to their success.
He said he had devoted more than 100 percent of his time to the bakery.
"Even when I go to sleep, I would wake up in the middle of the night and write down all my ideas on a scrap of
paper until dawn," Anthony said.
With these ideas, the young Pantoja was able to create new products like cheese rolls, cake and cheese pandesal,
as alternative to hot pandesal.
"We cannot sell pandesal for 100 years," he said. "A customer's taste is constantly changing, so what we do is we
benchmark. We invent new products."
After he graduated in college with a Hotel and Restaurant Management degree, Anthony took a lecture course
from Sylvia Reynoso-Gala, where he derived the cheese rolls formula.
He also learns new recipes from books, food expos, mall shows and seminars.
Location remains a factor. Pantoja's main branch is located near the Tanauan Public Market, while other
franchises are located in the city or town proper, just like those in Lipa and Balayan.
People coming from the cockpit also visit their branch in Tanauan.
Anthony estimates that a small bakery today would need P500,000 to P700,000 capital to get the business going.
Depending on their location, the bakery can expect a return on investment within two to three years.
Close personnel management is also a key ingredient. For instance, Anthony claims that business owners like him
stay full-time in the business, monitoring its day-to-day operations.
"It's about having good location, good product and good people," he said. "Absence of any means failure."
Since Anthony took over the business in 2000, the bakery has started professionalizing. It has now established
itself into a corporation.
His father Arturo acts as Panaderia Pantoja's president and chief executive officer. Anthony is the company's vice
president for operations, handling the human resource, accounting, production and frontline sales departments.
Batangas' best
The booming business is now growing, opening another branch in Alabang, Muntinlupa City. It also has franchises
on Mother Ignacia and V. Luna Streets in Quezon City, and an outlet in Market, Market.
In the future, Pantoja wants to expand through franchising and explore possibilities of exporting products,
particularly the jacobina and paborita biscuits.
For the past five decades, the bakery has lived up to its slogan, "Probably, Batangas' Best," in persuading
customers to buy their products.
"We say probably because we don't want to claim we're the best in Batangas," said Anthony. "We say Batangas'
Best because most of our franchises are here in Batangas."
Copyright 2008 Southern Luzon Bureau. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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http://business.inquirer.net/money/features/view_article.php?article_id=76804
11/4/2008