Love at first bite

Rene Santos first tasted Cinnabon’s cinnamon rolls back in 1994 when a relative hand-carried a box from the United States as a coming home gift or pasalubong. Smitten by love at first bite, on the one hand, and seeing a business opportunity, on the other hand, he immediately applied for a franchise.

At the time, AFC Enterprise, the owner of the US bakery chain, focused on developing the local market and was not ready to go overseas. Santos, however, persisted and kept his application alive, year after year.

His sweet reward came in 1999 when Canelle Food Corp., with Santos as president, bested 32 other applicants and signed an exclusive development agreement with AFC to build and operate Cinnabon bakeries in the Philippines.

"Most of my partners in Cannelle are shipping people," said Santos who has been in the shipping industry since 1981. "I guess the combination of proven discipline in running successful shipping businesses and our partnership with Jean Pierre Etroit, a food and beverage specialist, was a unique value proposition for AFC. I think they saw that we would work very hard for the business," Santos said.

Cinnabon is the industry leader worldwide with over 450 bakeries. It is present in 85% of the major malls in the US. Last year, the chain sold its 500 millionth roll.

Competitive edge

"Cinnabon has an international culture that is capable of supporting operations, marketing and product development. And this is what we rely on," Santos aid.

This culture is evident at the store level. "We promise hot, freshly-baked rolls. If it isn’t hot anymore, the roll is pulled out and we bake again. We don’t do microwave heating in our bakeries, even if the customer requests it."

Very often, Santos applies what he has learned as founder of Southwest Maritime Corp., a firm into ship ownership, ship management and ship manning, into managing Canelle.

"The first rule in any business, particularly food, is to determine if the food you will market will be acceptable to the public," he said. Before putting up Canelle, Santos conducted informal surveys among flight attendants on how many boxes of Cinnabon they’ve seen among Filipinos coming home from the US.

"We know who our customers are. We know where to reach them." As an analogy, Santos said one cannot get the dealership for Mercedes Benz and then put the showroom in some far-flung underdeveloped area.

Second, Santos surrounds himself with good people. "You can’t work alone. You have to identify people who will work with dedication and pay them well. But that’s not enough. We also train them. It’s the same with Cinnabon and any other business. Training must be continuous."

This year, Canelle targets the opening of five to six more bakeries in highly visible locations and to possibly introduce new products like last year’s highly successful "chocobon" into the menu.

For Cinnabon customers, the sweetest rewards are yet to come.