Figaro Coffee

History

Figaro was established in November 1993 by seven college friends (including Pacita "Chit" Juan, who was the CEO of Figaro, and Reena S. Franciso, who became its COO till 2008) as a small kiosk in Glorietta mall (Makati, Manila) selling fresh ground coffee and tea paraphernalia. Two of the founders, including Pacita Juan and Reena S. Franciso Pacita, were classmates at the University of the Philippines, where Pacita had studied Hotel and Restaurant Administration. Pacita worked for a while in her family business and then decided to start a coffee shop, something that she had earlier dabbled with while still in college. The first outlet was called the "F" store and employed one managing partner and two employees. The shop had coffee and tea paraphernalia including fresh ground coffee beans. After a few trying initial months, the owners decided to give the coffee shop a name. In April 1994, the founders chose the name "Figaro", inspired by the opera Barber of Seville, thus Figaro was born. Pacita and her friends wanted to set up a place where "Filipinos can get the perfect coffee and all the necessary accoutrements for coffee making”. Pacita subsequently became the CEO of Figaro, a position she retained till 2008 when the chain was sold to Jerry Liu, a Taiwanese businessman. Jose Fernando Alcantara took Pacita's place in 2008, followed by CrisMel Verano in 2009. Reena remained the Chief Operating Officer till 2008.

In 1998, Pacita met Father Roger Bagao, a coffee farmer and priest from Tagaytay City who headed a farmers' coffee cooperative. In 1999, Figaro introduced Cafe Barako, as part of the "Save the Barako" campaign. Around the same time, the Figaro foundation was set up, to help coffee farmers grow coffee profitably. In 2002, while at Figaro, Pacita became the President of the National Coffee Development Board (now Philippine Coffee Board Inc). After Figaro, Pacita went on to set up ECHOstore. In 2005, Figaro opened its first overseas outlet in Shanghai. By mid-2006, Figaro had grown to 53 outlets, most of which were in Metro Manila, with two in Baguio and one in Davao. In 2006 (and again in 2009), Figaro voiced plans on an IPO in Makati Stock Exchange; however, those did not materialise. In December 2006, Figaro opened its first branch in Cebu city, and opened another 12 stores in 2007. 2008 marked a turning point for Figaro, as Pacita and Reena left it, while the Tanseco family became its majority shareholders. In 2009, the company underwent financial restructuring and closed some of its overseas branches.

Some trademarks of Figaro continue to be owned by Pacita and are currently contested in court. In the same year, Figaro began to experiment in retailing and exporting organic coffee.

In April 2013, the franchisee manager of Figaro, Mike Barret, informed the media of their intent to open outlets in Fiji and Vietnam.

Company

Figaro works on the franchise model. As of September 2013, it had 55 outlets in Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Papua New Guinea. The company does not own roasting facilities, but rather employs the facilities of a sister company, Boyd’s Coffee Company.

The company has a customer loyalty scheme called "Coffee club" which organizes biannual coffee plantation tours in Cavite and Batangas. They also organize Barako tree plantation trips.

Coffee and food

Figaro's serves coffee made from freshly-roasted beans sourced from all over the Philippines, especially Batangas (Barako brand) and the Mountain province. It also sources coffee from Kalinga, Ifugao, Benguet, Batangas, Cavite, Negros, Davao, Sulu and Basilan and markets them under the brand names of Cafe Maharlika, Monte Alto, Barako gold and Cafe Vigoroso. They also serve fine meals, pastries and desserts. All their outlets tend to have a European-style ambiance. In August 2013, Figaro's started serving Vietnamese coffee under the name of Kape Indochine

They have established the Figaro foundation which works with local farmers and conducts tree planting and ecology tours. The Figaro foundation helps local farmers to grow coffee profitably. Their programs include Save the barako campaign, Adopt a farm, Tree planting and Eco tours, As part of its "Barako Tree Planting Project", it helped plant 30,000 trees in and around Amadeo, a coffee growing town.

Figaro is often quoted as an inspiration for other coffee shops and chains in Philippines.