‘Ceo Dad’ bunny pages: Juggling business and fatherhood

CEBU, Philippines — When Cebuano businessman Bunny Pages started in the food business in 1996, it was quite a challenging business decision to buy a dwindling fruit shake brand and turn it around and make it profitable.

It's a real challenge in business sense.

But who would have thought that Bunny's decision to buy Thirsty Fresh Fruit Juices and Shakes, which only had two branches during that time from its original owner, could be the start of his growing food empire?

His food businesses are among today's well-known in Cebu's growing restaurant business.

Today, the entrepreneur has established a total of 17 brands, 14 of which are food ventures that have emerged as proudly Cebuano brands.

The food brands owned by Pages Holdings Inc., include House of Lechon, Lantaw Native Restaurant, Mooon Cafe, Top of Cebu, Sushi Boy, Cafe Racer, Mismukuno Teppanyaki, Taters, Shaka Hawaiian Restaurant, Daplin sa Dagat, Kampo Grill & Bar, Summers Frozen Delights, Fruitfull and Thirsty.

And as Bunny refuses to sit on his laurels, more brands are expected from the company as there's no stopping Bunny from adding more to his food brands.

Expansion goals

"We want to expand even more," he said in an interview recently, following the recognition his company recently received from the Ateneo de Manila University as among the 10 outstanding family-run businesses in the country today.

"If there are opportunities, we take them because we still want to grow our food brands," he said.

More than the brands he has established, Bunny said it is the ability to help the community and provide employment to the locals that's most satisfying to him as an entrepreneur.

As a family-run company, Bunny's role is both a father and the company CEO, something relatively challenging, he said.

"You can't separate family from business. In the same way you can't separate business from family. My role has always been to thresh out the differences, close those open loops and solve the conflicts between siblings," the entrepreneur said.

All of Bunny's children are involved in the business.

His children – John, Charlie, Randy, Cheryl and Michael – are delegated to manage specific businesses under the company.

Bunny's role is to oversee the overall operations of the company.

"I always make sure everyone is looking at the same direction of the business despite our differences. We work as a team. We make use of the talents of each one of us," the Cebuano businessman further shared.

"We try to run the business in the most professional way," he added.

Looking back

Looking back, Bunny was just like any other Filipino.

He was raised to become an employee. That was why after he completed his degree in chemical engineering at the University of San Carlos in Cebu City in 1968, he landed his first job in the oil industry as a marketing representative for Mobil Oil Philippines.

After five years, Pages looked for another career because he was already dissatisfied and then he joined the insurance industry through Manulife of Canada for almost 24 years as a career agent and manager for Southern Philippines. 

When he reached the age of 49, Bunny felt he wasn't happy anymore with what he was doing.

He thought he didn't want to work for somebody else anymore.

He wanted then to be an entrepreneur, a decision he described as the best he did in his life.

It's quite ironic though that he never dreamed of becoming a successful businessman in his younger days.

It might be too late as he entered the business not until he was 49, but that was the time when he was already ready and well equipped to start his entrepreneurship journey.

His family officially started their business venture in 1992 when the family converted the garage of their residence in Banilad, Cebu City into a small classroom they named "Play House" with only five pre-schoolers then.

It was in 1996 when the Pages family entered the food industry by buying the then dwindling Thirsty brand, which now has grown to more than 130 company-owned and franchised outlets nationwide.

For the second time, the Pages family bought another brand called Mooon Café for P700,000 in 2007. Mooon has now expanded to about 20 branches. They were able to turn Thirsty and Mooon, which were said to be losing already at the time of their purchase, into thriving brands today.

Bunny’s proficiency in business earned him a number of accolades, one of which was the Entrepreneur of the Year award given by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry in 2015. (FREEMAN)