...the best bartenders in the world

Expert opinion: Why Pinoys are among the best bartenders in the world

ABS-CBN NEWS

Cyrene Dela Rosa

14 September 2019 

Take a cruise or drop by a bar in most any part of the world, and chances are the bartender is Filipino. So why are Filipinos ruling the global bartending scene and what makes them so good? The industry experts weigh in.

It has been a long time coming, but Filipino bartenders are now globally recognized as among the best in the world, not only in the Asia-Pacific region, but in the rest of the world, too. perhaps this became most apparent during the Asia's 50 Best bars ceremony in 2018 when Filipinos took the spotlight, with the Makati-based The curator taking the no. 25 spot, and most notably, with two Filipinos, Cedric Mendoza and Gabriel Carlos, helping Manhattan Bar in Singapore snag its no. 1 position. these are indeed glory days for Filipino bartenders worldwide.

I asked some of the most respected bar industry people to share their thoughts on what makes Filipino bartenders so sought after abroad and here is what they revealed:

Jericson Co

Owner and bartender, The Curator, Edsa Beverage Design, YKW at the Grid, and 205 (in photo, right, with David Ong)

It’s a mix of being raised in despair and family. These couple of generations of Filipino bartenders were kids in the 1990s and 2000s. We grew up with such ingrained structural negativity but were also cocooned by our families and culture who tried to make the best with what was available. So you have people that were familiar with washing away whatever rough situation was happening outside with hospitality, all the while knowing how to empathize with how tough it is outside. 

Erwan Heussaff

Owner, Yes Please, Revel, The Island

Filipinos have an innate knack for hospitality. We always want to make sure that our guests are comfortable, well fed, and happy, whether in our own house or our place of work. Pair that with our ability to adapt to foreign environments and our capacity to learn, you’ve got a strong base for a job that requires you to be precise, efficient, and creative, all in front of your customers.  Bartending looks like a laid-back job from the outside, but it’s a tough industry to be in. Filipinos are able to smile through it and make it look easy.

David Ong

Co-Founder and Managing Partner, The Curator, OTO (in photo, left, with Cedric Mendoza)

We’ve always thought that Filipinos make great bartenders in that half of the job is naturally inherent to us—that is, being hospitable. Thus our efforts to push our own bartenders at The Curator and OTO by guiding them to be 1% better than yesterday. If you give Filipinos the opportunity to better themselves (technique, knowledge, experience and wisdom), not only within the Philippines but abroad, then the sky is really the limit. Just look at Gab, Cedric, Yoma, Bryan, Mel, Davide, Joe, Gerry, Jake, Jon, and Kervin (all homecoming Filipino bartenders participating in the first Manila Cocktail Festival).

Holly Graham

Managing Editor of DRiNK Magazine Asia

I agree that Filipinos are good bartenders as they tend to be friendly and outgoing and hospitality comes naturally to them. I’ve seen many Filipinos do well outside the Philippines, including here in Hong Kong such as my dear friends Jake Mendoza at The Sea by The Old Man and Bryson Rivera of Bar Q88 who is also the founder of Circuit Square Tattoo (and has inked two designs on me!). Over in Singapore, Manhattan has seen some great Filipinos but I’m also really happy to see a strong community of female bartenders growing within Manila.

Rian Asiddao

Brand Ambassador, Diageo Reserve and Diageo Philippines Inc.

There are many traits us Filipinos have that make us really good in the hospitality industry. We excel in culinary, service, and in bartending. First, we are very hospitable and service oriented people. We love to host people, show them around, offer food and drinks, and we love to make people smile. Second, we are flexible enough to do many things, from the dirty work such as cleaning the glasses, dishes, and even going to the market to purchase ingredients, to admin work such as inventory, stock management, etc. Third, we are very open with ideas, and we are good in levitating an idea into something magical. And lastly, we are very charming and friendly, easy for other people to be comfortable with us. All these traits make us great in hospitality and because of that, we have so many amazing bartenders here and across the globe.

Giancarlo Mancino

Founder, Mancino Vermouth & Bar and beverage consultant for Rosewood Hotels

Based on my over 15 years of experience working with Filipino bartenders, I can say that they offer a complete package. Aside from their good command of the English language, most of them also have the ideal personality suited for the bar world. Compassionate, always smiling, and polite. And to top that, also willing to work hard.

Philip Bischoff

Beverage Manager and Beverage Ambassador APAC, Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok at Chao Phraya River (in photo, center, with Cedric Mendoza and Gabriel Carlos)

From my recent experience in Singapore, I can share that I have experienced amazingly talented, passionate, and committed bartenders at Manhattan Bar (No. 2 Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2019 and No. 3 World’s 50 Best Bars 2018). Clearly, Cedric Mendoza (formerly with Manhattan Bar, currently at Grain Bar, Sydney) and Gabriel Carlos (Manhattan Bar) are amazing examples of how passion and commitment can drive a story of success, but also taking the chance, when seeing one and realizing that it needs hard work to be successful. Great to see talents like Kelvin Saki rise as well, being driven by passion and the drive to learn and get better every day… It’s amazing to see how passionate people like David Ong are supporting and driving the local bartending scene and to be supportive as much as he can. I believe it all depends on every single one’s commitment and willingness to learn and being eager enough to get better. Somehow, I also trust it has to do with the environment and platform where talents are identified and supported.

...the environment-friendly country

Philippines joins Southeast Asian nations rejecting plastic waste


Jun Endo
Nikkei Asian Review
14 September 2019

MANILA -- The Philippines is getting serious about plastic waste imported illegally from developed countries, announcing in August that it would impose a three-month moratorium on waste-related imports.

Plastic waste is sorted at a new recycling plant in Metro Manila. The Philippines has seen its plastic waste imports rise 150% from 2016 to about 11,800 tons in 2018.

It has even sent some back to Canada, which had been discovered shipping waste illegally to the country for years -- a revelation that so infuriated President Rodrigo Duterte that he recalled his ambassador to Canada and threatened war.

"We are not the world's dump site," the outspoken president said.

To help deal with the problem, a new 25 million peso ($481,877) garbage-disposal plant in Metro Manila is scheduled to go online soon. The project is being headed by the Philippine Alliance for Recycling and Materials Sustainability, a nonprofit organization consisting of global food and consumer goods giants such as Nestle, Coca-Cola and Unilever.

The facility will pulverize about 1 ton of plastic a day -- equal to about 400,000 sachets of shampoo and instant coffee -- to make sidewalk blocks and other products.

But while every bit helps, the plant will hardly put a dent in the roughly 60 billion plastic sachets said to be in circulation, the vast majority of which are destined for dumps. And because making road blocks from recycled plastic is about 14% more expensive than from concrete, the facility will encourage environmentally conscious infrastructure and construction companies to buy them.

"Our first goal is to make projects like this investable," said PARMS Executive Director Paolo Gonzales. "If we can prove that it will be profitable -- that we can gain a return on our investment -- we will be able to get other sources of funding and replicate it, maybe in other cities in Metro Manila."

More than 8 million tons of plastic is dumped into the world's oceans each year, with China and four other Asian nations accounting for the majority of this. Meanwhile, the mountains of plastic waste produced globally had largely gone unnoticed until China began reducing waste imports in 2014 before banning them outright in 2018.

With nowhere to go, the waste found its way to Southeast Asia, with the Philippines seeing plastic waste imports rise 150% from 2016 to about 11,800 tons in 2018.

But the country has had enough. Following Duterte's tirade, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources announced the three-month moratorium. A department official urged businesses to take the waste matter seriously and promised to cooperate with them in their efforts to tackle the problem.

The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives has heavily criticized multinationals' reliance on single-use plastics, saying that nearly 60% of plastic packaging in the Philippines comes from 10 multinational companies, including Nestle, Unilever and Procter & Gamble.

Moreover, investors are beginning to focus on environmental, social and governance -- or ESG -- investment principles so businesses cannot afford to ignore the issue.

Many other Southeast Asian countries are also unhappy with multinationals over the vast amounts of plastic waste they generate. This has prompted about 40 companies -- including Dow Chemical and BASF -- to establish in January the nonprofit Alliance to End Plastic Waste.

At an August meeting in Bangkok, the Alliance announced it will invest $1 billion in Southeast Asia and elsewhere over the next five years to improve waste control systems and infrastructure needed to collect plastics.

"While our effort will be global, the Alliance can have the greatest impact by focusing on parts of the world where the challenge is greatest -- such as Southeast Asia, where more than half of the world's plastic waste has been found -- and by sharing solutions and best practices so that these efforts can be amplified and scaled-up around the world," said Antoine Grange, CEO of Recycling and Recovery of SUEZ Asia, an Alliance member.

The Alliance's ultimate goal is to build recycling-oriented economies in the region in cooperation with member companies.global

Researcher Ella Hermonio contributed to this report.

...the Southeast Asian growth area

First Person: More growth in Southeast Asia's tech start -up scene than Japan's, says VC

Khairani Afifi Noordin |The Edge Malaysia

13 September 2019 

There are more venture capital investment opportunities in Southeast Asian technology start-ups than those in Japan, says Koichi Saito, founder and general partner of Singapore-based venture capital firm KK Fund.

One of the advantages of being an investor in Southeast Asia is that there are no clear winners yet in many of the verticles, he points out. So, there is room for these start-ups to become unicorns in their respective industries.

Companies whose valuations have crossed the billion-dollar mark in this region are mostly in the ride-hailing and e-commerce verticles. Verticles such as logistics and healthcare have yet to see any tech giants.

It helps that these investments are still relatively affordable as most of these companies are still raising funds in the Series A and B rounds, says Saito. “Southeast Asian start-ups have the opportunity to receive money from all over the world because investors are becoming more cognisant of the region’s reputation as the growth market of the future.”

On the other hand, the start-up scene in his native Japan is shrinking. While the world’s third largest economy may seem like a hotbed of high-growth tech start-ups, due to the advancements and innovations in the sector, there is actually more growth in Southeast Asia, says Saito.

He points out that the Tokyo Stock Exchange has a Mothers (market of the high-growth and emerging stocks) board. Established in 1999, it allows the listing of companies with strong potential to be reassigned to the First Section (market of large companies) in the near future.

“While this market serves as a very good platform for start-ups to list, it also spoils these companies. Even if a company is in the red, it can go for an initial public offering (IPO) and get a valuation of about US$300 million almost immediately. That is the reason we do not often hear about Japanese unicorns — they always list before they can become one,” says Saito.

As a result, Japanese start-ups tend to stay within the country, he adds. But Southeast Asian start-ups have to look at the global market to ensure sustainability. So, these companies are always executing expansion plans and looking for ways to scale.

“Also, it is usually difficult for Japanese start-ups to attract global venture capitalists (VCs) because scaling is very important to these investors. They do not care about US$300 million exits. While it is easier to monetise and raise funds in Japan, Southeast Asia is more attractive in the long run,” says Saito.

He and his partner, Kuan Hsu, launched KK Fund in Singapore in 2015. The firm currently has 21 companies from across Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan in its portfolio.

Prior to founding KK Fund, Saito was a director at IMJ Investment Partners, responsible for its investments throughout Southeast Asia. These included financial comparison website iMoney, e-commerce business Bukalapak and online real estate services marketplace Zipmatch.

Looking for gems

While the region is appealing for venture capital funding, Saito acknowledges that it is difficult to find gems among the many burgeoning start-ups, especially as a seed-stage investor. To identify those that deserve capital, he looks for a strong management team with good storytelling skills and an “unfair advantage”, among others.

Saito’s definition, a strong management team comprises individuals who are well connected in the industry they are trying to penetrate. “For example, I invested in [Malaysian] insurtech company PolicyStreet. The company’s founders are very well connected in the finance and insurance industries. One of the founders, Winnie Chua, even has a background in actuarial science. This is one team that I consider to be very strong,” he says.

While it is not a necessity, Saito also looks at the founders’ family backgrounds to determine whether they have an unfair advantage over the rest. For instance, there are founders whose families own large businesses, which they are able to leverage from the get-go. While this may be viewed as quite unfair, he thinks it is a good thing.

“I also check the founders’ commitment to growing the company finance-wise. How can they ask us for US$500,000 in seed capital if they only put US$100 into the company? They could walk away scot-free if the company faces any problems in the future. If they put in a decent amount of money, say US$100,000, then I see that as a good commitment,” says Saito.

It is very important to him that at least one of the founders possesses a good storytelling ability. He points out that start-ups have to tell their stories until they reach the Series D funding round to attract investments.

If a company does not have good key performance indicators at the time, at least they are able to deliver clear messages on its future goals and what it can do with the financing to convince investors. Without this ability, companies will find it challenging to raise funds, says Saito.

“While we can train founders to pitch [for funding], there are still a lot of risks. Some people are just not meant to deliver the story. I have found some founders to be too honest. They blurt out all the company’s details, so much so that they paint a very bad picture for prospective investors,” he adds.

Solving real problems in the region

In Southeast Asia, financial technology (fintech) remains one of the most interesting sectors to invest in, says Saito. He thinks the region needs alternative financing solutions that can be best addressed by homegrown fintech start-ups.

“There are a lot of segments under the fintech umbrella in Southeast Asia that can be disrupted by companies that fully understand a problem. For example, some regulators do not impose interest rate caps. So, there are a lot of ‘loan sharks’ in Vietnam and Indonesia lending money to people in the lower-income group at crazy rates — some up to 50% per month,” says Saito.

“By comparison, some lenders in Malaysia charge about 25% per year. It is 22% per year in Japan, so that is less than 2% per month. Those in Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines charge 20 times more.

“Start-ups in these countries are offering interest rates that are between those charged by banks and those by other lenders, which I think is quite interesting. This is definitely a good opportunity to tap into.”

Insurtech, or insurance technology, is another area that Saito likes. He points out that in Southeast Asia, insurance is not something everyone can afford. Typically, it is only for people in the middle to higher-income group. As a result, insurance products are not designed for those in the lower-income group.

“Those who cannot afford insurance have to get medical attention at public hospitals, where the facilities are not the best and can be crowded — some patients need to wait hours to get attended to. In private hospitals, patients receive good care and do not have to wait for service. So, we need some kind of insurance product that can fill the gap for those in the lower-income group,” says Saito.

PolicyStreet is addressing this problem. The homegrown company sells micro-insurance products to people of all income groups. As the founders have extensive expertise in the sector, it is able to work with insurance companies to develop new products. Saito invested in the company because there are no insurtech unicorns in Southeast Asia yet.

In June, PolicyStreet announced that it had obtained the approval of Bank Negara Malaysia to conduct a financial advisory business. With this approval, it can source, aggregate, compare and customise products and services as well as advise consumers and businesses on insurance products that best meet their needs.

Another company in KK Fund’s portfolio that Saito thinks will be able to disrupt its industry is Venteny, a hybrid employee benefits and fintech solution platform based in the Philippines. In addition to providing clients with employee loyalty programmes, it also offers short-term loan services.

“In the Philippines, it is quite difficult for those in the lower and lower-middle-income groups to borrow money from banks. Many of them do not even possess a credit card,” says Saito.

“Venteny provides micro-financing to employees based on the data they get from the employees’ companies, their social media behaviour and their online shopping history. The company is growing very fast because it is solving a real problem.”

He also likes the logistics sector, having invested in a few logistics-related companies. He points out that the cost of logistics as a percentage of GDP in Southeast Asia is actually double that in developed countries such as Japan and South Korea.

“The Lorry, a Malaysian lorry rental platform, was actually my second venture capital investment after home services marketplace Kaodim. I think the company has a very interesting business model,” says Saito.

“Usually, logistical processes are paper-based and the prices are not clear to consumers. TheLorry is trying to solve the inefficiencies and lack of transparency in the logistics industry. And I think it has done a very good job of addressing the problems.

“The company’s revenue is finally picking up and it is getting bigger business-to-business accounts such as those of Unilever and Coca-Cola. It has also expanded to Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. Hopefully, there will be more to come.”

Launched in 2014, The Lorry provides services such as transport, professional office and house moving and furniture disposal. Bookings are made entirely online — users get an instant quotation upon filling up a form on the mobile app or website. The price quoted is final and extra charges only apply if another trip is needed.

In the near future, Saito wants to invest in healthcare-related companies because he thinks there is a lack of clinics and hospitals in the region. He is keeping an eye on an offline/online hybrid clinic company based in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The founder — a paediatrician by profession — realised that there were not enough clinics for children in the city and surrounding areas. So, parents had to travel far and wide to get medical attention for their children. To solve this problem, he launched an app that would allow him to give online consultations, says Saito. This is another company trying to solve a real problem.

Saito says he is optimistic that he will be able to make successful exits. He has already partially exited one of the companies in the portfolio and a full exit from another company is in the works. Nevertheless, exits remain a big hurdle for VCs in the region.

“In countries like Japan, an IPO is the obvious way to go. Here, it is mergers and acquisitions. We know that not many companies here would want to spend US$100 million or US$1 billion acquiring a start-up,” says Saito.

“Despite this, I think it will be easier five years from now. We are seeing big tech companies and investors enter the scene. So, I think the ecosystem will eventually thrive, making exits easier for early-stage investors such as ourselves.”