"Our dine-in restaurant concept called Biggs needed at least 200 square meters. Bigg Topps needed only 70 square meters, including an open kitchen that customers can see," said president Carlo Buenaflor.
Like the dine-in restaurant chain, which currently number 12 outlets, the first outlet of Bigg Topps is located in Naga City, Camarines Sur. Six months after its December opening last year, a second outlet (and first franchisee) has been opened in Manila’s University Belt.
"Bigg Topps is an evolution of the operations of Biggs and gourmet coffee shops. Similar to these coffee shops, each individual order is written on the serving bowl itself to reduce wrongly taken or incomplete orders. Cooking starts only when an order is made. There is no pre-heating or re-heating involved. The food is served within four minutes after the order is made," said Buenaflor.
Also like the dine-in restaurant chain, the commissary of Bigg Topp is located in Bicol.
"We have been able to keep our costs down because we are not based in Metro Manila. Product freshness does not suffer, given the advanced technologies in freighting now available," said Buenaflor.
The average number of employees per store is 12, working in two shifts from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Taking its inspiration from the spinning toy that forms part of its name, store employees are given unusual designations. For example, the business manager is called the top master while the bus boy is called a spinner.
"Despite the small floor area, the number of customer per day is pretty high because of the turnover rate. We have discovered that diners tend not to linger when eating from a bowl. At most, they stay and finish their food in 15 minutes. That means one table can serve four sets of customers in the span of an hour," said Buenaflor.
Among the biggest come-ons for Bigg Topps is its wide menu of breakfast and snack favorites such as tapsilog and lomi as well and rice toppings recipes such as chicken teriyaki and Filipino beef steak, which are basically taken from the Bigg restaurant.
"Everything except the combo meals are priced below P79. Like our dine-in restaurant, the portions at Bigg Topps are generous," said Buenaflor.
Priority locations for the next 10 Bigg Topps outlets are gasoline stations and bus terminals along the north and south expressway.
"I have offers from mall operators and potential franchisees. I am meticulously looking over the proposals. The location is important but so is the commitment of our partners to be hands-on managers," said Buenaflor.