Attorney Armi Ballaran-Rabelas shares why she is bullish with her food franchises from the Figaro Coffee Group

Much like any profession, it requires years of experience for one to be successful regardless of what industry one may be in. For Atty. Armi Ballaran-Rabelas, she has always been in the legal profession her entire career. Along the road though, she thought to venture into another field which happened to be the F&B industry.

Entering into new territory, she admits that she needed some guidance in setting up her business. She saw that franchising was the best way to go as an answer to her inadequate knowledge in the F&B industry. “I have decided to franchise a business because of my lack of exposure and experience,” she shares. “So when I was searching for a food business franchise, my topmost consideration was integrity and quality.”

As she was searching for a possible coffee franchise, one of her clients suggested to look into Figaro Coffee for its reputation as a long-standing homegrown coffee company. What sealed the deal though for Atty. Ballaran-Rabelas was Figaro’s approach towards its business partners. “The people behind the Figaro Coffee Group (FCG) were gracious to newbie entrepreneurs like me,” she explains. “It was like getting the best teacher to teach us the ins and outs of a business model.”

Moreover, TFG’s Chief Operating Officer, Mike Barrett, notes that operating a cafe or a restaurant is definitely not a walk in the park. “It needs very close, hands-on monitoring to ensure product and service quality is high, inventory management is in place, and the store team is well-trained and equipped with technical knowledge.”

Given more than 27 years in the industry, the franchisees are assured of FCG’s franchise system, technical expertise, and its management team's solid experience in F&B.

From one branch to several

Before Atty. Ballaran-Rabelas opened her first-ever Figaro Coffee in August 2016, FCG also introduced Angel’s Pizza to her, and that day has become truly memorable for her, as it was love at first taste.  

“It was the best-tasting pizza I had ever tasted, so I thought of bringing Angel’s Pizza to my hometown as a delicious, value-for-money option compared to the more popular pizza brands in our place,” she says.

This led her to franchising her second brand under FCG, opening her first Angel’s Pizza in February 2017. After a year of operation, she then applied for yet another branch of Angel’s Pizza in the nearby province because of its potential to grow. To this day, she isn’t stopping there, because the lawyer-turned-entrepreneur is soon to open another branch in Sorsogon.

“Angel’s Pizza is the best thing that happened to my career journey as an entrepreneur. While my journey started with Figaro Coffee, which was successful, Angel’s Pizza is really a game changer,” she recounts. “It made me realize that a business should be motivated not by profit alone but it's purpose; purpose to offer quality food products without hurting the pocket, and this is exactly what FCG provided me to which has contributed to my success in my F&B venture.”