Maternity plan

Did you know 1: The city of Masbate offers investors a five-year tax holiday.

New businesses include a three-month-old Jollibee outlet that has people, including fisherfolk and cowboys, lining up as early as two in the morning for its breakfast offerings.

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Did you know 2: After experimenting with lunch buffets in all its restaurant outlets, New World Hotel has now limited its "fast food service" to its coffee shop.

Mind you, the food is not bad at all but, as its new chef has probably realized, serving Peking duck in a buffet setting just doesn’t, well, cut it.

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Did you know 3: For some reason or another, ice cream sales no longer melt during the rainy season. Fact is, sales remain healthy, although not in the same level as summer month.

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Medical City – the one right beside the Meralco compound in Pasig City is working out the kinks to a "forced savings or installment scheme" for expectant mothers.

The idea here is for the family to determine early on the kind of maternity package it wants and then to set aside money for it every month until the expected date of delivery.

The way Medical City chief executive officer Dr. Alfredo Bengzon sees it, the family will not have to worry about inflation (read: the package price will not go up between the time the mother learns she is pregnant to the time she gives birth) and about paying in one big blow.

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With five operating factories in its Laguna compound that manufactures 100,000 loaves of bread every day during the working week and 150,000 during the weekend, Gardenia Bakeries (Phils.), Inc. has just rolled out a community-based distribution concept that offers its partners margins of between 15 percent and 25 percent.

Here’s how general manager Simplicio Umali Jr. explains it. Because Gardenia’s trucks cannot get into eskinitas or narrow streets or subdivisions, the company is looking for would-be partners who would be given territories where it can push any or all of the company 40 shelf-keeping units or different kinds of breads.

No bond is needed nor, come to it, capital. The first day delivery is payable the next day when he should have collected from his buyers.

At the end of the day, a person who decides to go door-to-door gets a 25-percent profit while a person who distributes to sari-sari stores or small bakeries will get only 15 percent since the balance 10-percent mark-up will go to the specific sari-sari store or small bakery.

Jun Umali’s example. Someone who was responsible for the C.M. Recto (Manila) business generated P100,000 a month, for which he netted P15,000. Whether that someone has raised enough money for something else or has become an overseas Filipino workers, that location is now up for grabs.