The family of the late Virac businessman Antonio Kiong took a big risk in applying for the local franchise of the Mang Inasal, with the branch at Virac Town Center opening today, Oct. 1, 2025 as one of the more than 500 stores in the Philippines.
At last, its native-style and “nuot-sarap” Chicken Inasal with its special marinade is now within easy reach of Catandunganons.
With Mang Inasal’s entry, the island province now has three of the top fast-food restaurant franchises in the country after Jollibee at Centermall and McDonalds at VTC, the latter courtesy of businessman Carlito Tariman.
The projected opening of the VTC Annex sometime later this year will likewise bring in more stores that islanders normally patronize whenever they are in metropolitan Manila.
Congratulations to the Kiong family for this investment in Virac’s growing economy!
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Getting a food and beverage franchise does not only involve risk for investors but will also occupy most of their time, especially in the early months of operation.
According to the Mang Inasal website, a franchise requires a capital investment ranging from P20 million to P35 million depending on the type of store, along with a non-refundable System Enrolment Fee of P1.2 million.
There are four types of stores: the Free Standing, a stand-alone and two-level store with sufficient parking space; Mall, within the vicinity of a mall like VTC; In-Store, within a building with adjacent tenants on both sides; Food Court, inside the mall or a structure adjacent to food vendors and with a common area for self-serve dining; and, Drive Thru.
Each store requires a flood area of 270 square meters to as much as 1,000 square meters (parking space not included), with the store frontage a minimum of 13 meters.
The site should be located preferably in high traffic commercial/residential areas accessible to both pedestrians and motorists, with the site undergoing evaluation and assessment before approval of the franchise application.
Mang Inasal provides the store design through its design partner but the design fee of about P160,000.00 will be at the expense of the franchisee, who will have to build the store following the design.
Now owned by Jollibee Foods Corp., Mang Inasal assists in the recruitment and training of the restaurant management team. The franchisee is also required to go through a training program in order that the franchisee can operate the store.
An operations team acts as field consultants throughout the duration of the 10-year franchise term.
As to financial terms, the franchisee pays 5% of the gross sales as service fee and another 3% as advertising fee.
Aside from a product security deposit of P400,000.00, the franchisee would have to consider a renovation fee of P7 to P9 million that would be spent sometime during the franchise period.
The payback period for the considerable investment would depend on several factors such as sales, market potential investment and ability of the franchisee to control the operating expenses.
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THE OLD MAN’S BUSINESS. An old man is selling watermelons. His pricelist reads: 1 for $3, 3 for $10
A young man stops by and asks to buy one watermelon.
“That’d be 3 dollars”, says the old man.
The young man then buys another one, and another one, paying $3 for each.
As the young man is walking away, he turns around, grins, and says, “Hey old man, do you realize I just bought three watermelons for only $9? Maybe business is not your thing.”
The old man smiles and mumbles to himself, “People are funny. Every time they buy three watermelons instead of one, yet they keep trying to teach me how to do business…”