Where in the world is Carmen’s Best? First PH, now Singapore
Singaporeans are getting a taste of one of the Philippines’ best.
Carmen’s Best, the all-Filipino award-winning ice cream, has opened a store at Capitol Piazza on Stamford Road on the island state of Singapore, its first outlet outside the Philippines.
The bold move to venture outside Philippine shores is for Francisco “Paco” Magsaysay, the creative mind behind the premium Filipino ice cream, a case of serendipity.
Magsaysay met Singaporeans Jason Soh and Julian Lim, who set up the store, in his capacity as the overseer of the family cable television business. Soh and Lim were then working for HBO Asia.
“I have dealt with them for years,” Magsaysay says of the Singaporeans. “I know how they operated.” A confluence of events sealed the new partnership between the Filipino and Singaporeans. HBO Asia decided to consolidate and close its Asia office leaving the Singaporeans in search of something new to do.
Magsaysay, on the other hand, was thinking of Singapore’s food culture. It may be a small country but it is a true melting pot of cultures and a business and commercial hub, with residents open and eager to sample different cuisine and having the discernment to appreciate premium products, like Carmen’s Best ice cream.
“Singaporeans are very much into food and there are so many other nationalities [in the country],” Magsaysay explains his choice of Singapore as the first stop in what he hopes will be a steady expansion of the market for the product he almost singlehandedly nurtured.
Carmen’s Best was born out of Magsaysay’s desire to find many different uses for the fresh milk and cream produced in his dad Ramon Jr.’s dairy farm in Bay, Laguna. Magsaysay even took formal lessons in ice cream making from renowned experts abroad.
He says the Singapore store is not a franchise but a partnership. The Singaporeans are distributors of Carmen’s Best. Everything the Singapore store sells is made in the ice cream factory here and shipped as finished products. Magsaysay, Carmen’s Best chief executive officer, says the Singaporean partners pay upfront for everything they receive.
Early in December, with a lion dance to give it an auspicious start, Carmen’s Best Singapore formally opened. Although business was a little slow in the two months or so prior to the formal opening, things were beginning to pick up by then as the product began to ease its way into the consciousness of Singapore consumers.
The Singapore store, says Magsaysay, gets 12 of Carmen’s Best flavors. While Filipino fans seem to prefer salted caramel, Singaporeans lean more toward strawberry flavor, which uses fruits from Baguio and other upland farms.
Magsaysay says Son, who was in Manila recently as HBO Asia continues to wind down its Asia operations, told him the store was doing much better now after the formal opening.
At the opening, Magsaysay himself was the most eager and enthusiastic promoter of his product—pitching his ice cream to everyone who cared to listen, warmly welcoming customers and graciously encouraging passersby to taste the ice cream from the Philippines.
He is undaunted by the expected competition from foreign, better-known brands.
“We compete on quality. And our ice cream is of better quality than that of some brands. It is very creamy and uses only premium ingredients,” he says.
He adds that they do not scrimp on ingredients so whatever flavor a customer chooses, he/she can really taste the original source of that flavor.
While the opening of the Singapore store is another feather in his cap, Magsaysay, who remains the Carmen’s Best main flavor developer, welcomes the expansion more because it will give the company more resources to share with its favorite charities.
Since its inception, part of Carmen’s Best income has been supporting adult patients of the Philippine General Hospital with leukemia.
Now the company also supports scholars nominated by the Good Shepherd Convent in Baguio City. It also gives all the egg whites it does not use in its products to the convent.
For Magsaysay, the growth and continued success of Carmen’s Best only means the company will be able to support more charitable causes.
As for where Carmen’s Best will go next, he wants to take things slow and easy and wait until the Singapore store has truly come into its own. Besides, the Singapore experience showed him it was not easy bringing a new product to a new market, with all the documentary requirements here and the host country, even if you are one of the Philippines’ best.