As Their Flyer Stated "Start Your Own Siomai Business" ---- KJA Summit is Looking for Dealers

KJA Siomai @ AFFI Franchise show

As with JCM Foodlink, I saw another huge booth at the AFFI Filipino Franchise offering siomai and siopao products but more importantly, they offer a chance for people who do not have much capital a way to start a business and hopefully, compete with the big boys.

KJA's flyer claims to have been in the business for 8 years and their clients are hotels, caterers, restaurants, canteens and much more.

Selling prices:
    Jumbo siopao              P132/ 12-pcs

    Pork siomai                 P130/ 60-pcs

    Sharksfin                     P168/ 42 pcs

KJA Start Your Own Siomai Biz

KJA Menu board. Study it.

Pork siomai works out to P2.17/pc  or P8.68/ order of 4pcs versus selling price of P25/order or Food cost of  35%.  Try to compute and see if this is better than having a Master Siomai or Siomai HOuse franchise.  You have to take note that in the case of the Siomai House, they handle all your logistics needs.

You could sell their products on retail, be a dealer or even a provincial distributor.  This company might be worth looking into.

Contact Al Gillera (342-4891 or 542-3716) and tell him you got his contact numbers from Richard Joseph Siy blog.

For those interested in going into the Lotto Outlet business, I offer a One-on-One Consultation on How to Set-up and Operate Your Own Lotto Outlet.  Topics will include Site Selection, The Proper Way to Apply with the PCSO, How Much to Set-up a Lotto Outlet, Actual Operations, How to Attract Lotto Players, Hiring The Right Lotto Operator and How to Protect Your Business from Fraud and many many more.  I will share with you my Actual Experiences as a Lotto Agent.  My fee is only P2,000 per head.


   If you are interested in availing of my Lotto Consultation, you may text me at 0922-8831225 for details. See ya guys.
By the way, I would like to invite you to visit my Sulit Homepage as there are some business opportunities that you guys might be able to help me out with.  If you are interested, just click the Sulit Logo below:

Can't Afford a Siomai House or Master Siomai Franchise? Don't Feel Bad. . . Why Not Startup Your Own Siomai Haus with Help from JCM Foodlink!!!

JCM Foodlink booth at the AFFI Franchise Show

One of the booths that showed long lines was the JCM Foodlink towards the back of the exhibit hall but fronting the Stage.  I have seen JCM on several franchise and foodcart shows and to tell you the truth, I get a lot queries for how to contact JCM Foodlink.

Take note of the following facts:

1.  A Siomai House or Master Siomai franchise would cost you about P250,000 or more  (not including the Mall rentals, cusa, etc).  With that amount, you could probably test-market your own brand of siomai.

2.  JCM Foodlink offers their siomai at P2.00/pc or P8.00 for an order of 4pcs.  Siomai House sells one order of 4pcs at P25.00 or a gross margin of P17.00 per order!

3.  If it were Siomai House, your food cost is 80% (you keep only 20%) versus JCM Foodlink of only 32%!

4.  Of course, Siomai House is proud of their Supply Chain (ie just text the deposit slip data and they will deliver to your outlet) vs if you do it thru JCM, you will have to pick it up from them and deliver to your outlet.  Do the math and see which is better in the long run, in terms of time and cost.

5.  I tasted the JCM Foodlink siomai and it is about the same as most siomai on sale.

6. They also sell sharksfin, japanese siomai (like Master Siomai), beef siomai, burger patty, noodles, chili sauce ( no need to make yourself), gulaman powder & grass jelly (partner of siomai) and more.

7.  Siopao is P10.00 per piece.

8. Their flyer claims BFAD approval.


JCM Foodlink
No. 91 Sto Domingo Avenue, Quezon City
Tel 887-0122 or tell Joel Magtagnob (Mobile 0927-3176495) that you got his cell number from Richard Joseph Siy blog.


By the way, I would like to invite you to visit my Sulit Homepage as there are some business opportunities that you guys might be able to help me out with.  If you are interested, just click the Sulit Logo below:

Before You Sign That Franchise Contract, Find Out If Your Franchise Can Stand Head-to-Head with the Competition???

  Yesterday, I was at the MRT Boni Station and I noticed that Siomai House and the Master Siomai outlets were in front of each other.

This is the same scene at the MRT Taft Station (the busiest MRT station, I think) were the two outlets are side by side.

Again at the MRT Ayala Station, both Master Siomai and Siomai House outlets are within spitting distance of each other.

It seems Commercial Spaces Lessors do not care about protecting the tenants by zoning like-products and in fact will put like-products together.

Now, if it so happens that your selected Franchise is placed in front of a similar franchise (but of a different brand), make sure you have the NUmber ONe.  (At MRT Ayala, visit the place at 10pm and you will notice that the Master Siomai outlet is probably already closed for the day but the Siomai House is still serving lines of customers.

I am not saying Siomai House is better but it pays to study the strength of your franchise as these franchise packages are not cheap.

If you want to request for further information, send me a message or comment on the above post, please kindly click the "comment" button below this post.

As a NEW FEATURE ON MY NEW BLOG, I am conducting a Reader Survey on "What You Think Is The Hottest Small Business in Manila today". On the Top Right part of this blog is my Survey Poll. Please click your choice as the Best Small Business in Manila and then click "Vote" button.

To see the results of the survey todate, just click the “Show Result” button

2010 AFFI FILIPINO FRANCHISE SHOW: Set-up Your Own "Siomai Haus" or "Mrs. Siomai" and Invest Less/Earn More!!!

To get a branded Siomai Franchise (Siomai House or Master Siomai, The Number 1 and 2 in the country now) will mean the following:

1.  Franchise Package of P250,000 (excluding mall or store improvements)

2.  Your Food Margin on the Siomai is a low 20% (which means YOU HAVE TO SELL MANY SIOMAIs TO EARN)

3.  You have to follow the Franchisor's instructions to the letter. THE FRANCHISOR IS YOUR BOSS AND BUSINESS PARTNER.

What if you do not want have a boss, want to earn bigger margins and do not want to spend (or do not have) P250 thousand to spend?

Lines forming at the JCM Foodlink booth

ENTER JCM FOODLINK.  They will sell you the siomai and siopao. You put-up your own brand and sell.

  Branded siomai franchises will sell you the siomai at 20% less than your selling price of P25/order of 4-pc siomai or P20.  JCM will sell you their siomai at P2/pc or P8/order and you sell at P25 for a MARGIN OF 68% (vs 20% of the branded siomais).

  Of course, Siomai House and Master Siomai have brand-recalls. You will need to promote your products LOUDLY but still, a 300% difference in margins is something serious. 


Given the high rent from most malls, a siomai foodcart should sell at least P15,000 to P25,000 a day at 25% markup.   In fact, some siomai foodcarts exceed that as in the case of the Siomai House in Ayala MRT that reportedly sells as high as P60-70 thousand a day!!!


JCM Contact Nos. 887-0122

If you want to request for further information, send me a message or comment on the above post, please kindly click the "comment" button below this post.

As a NEW FEATURE ON MY NEW BLOG, I am conducting a Reader Survey on "What You Think Is The Hottest Small Business in Manila today". On the Top Right part of this blog is my Survey Poll. Please click your choice as the Best Small Business in Manila and then click "Vote" button.

To see the results of the survey todate, just click the “Show Result” button

AFEX 2010: ASIA FOOD EXPO: Want to Start Your Own Mr. Softy or Snowpy Soft Serve Ice Cream? Then, You Need This.

At the huge Technolux booth is the Taylor Soft-serve Ice Cream made in the US of A. High-Quality. Maybe the Rolls Royce of Soft serve ice cream. This is the same machine used by Jollibee for all their Rocky Road sundaes. The machine is not cheap, about P265,000 (vs maybe P50,000 for the Taiwan brand) but Technolux claim a higher 40% more yield per kilo of soft serve ice cream mix!!! Do the math.

For those who cannot afford a Rolls Royce, there were also soft serve ice cream machines made in Taiwan, Korea (cost as much as Taylor, don't know why) and China, I think.



Don't decide on cost alone. You have to think about yield (or how many cones can you do with a kilo of mix, after sales service when it breaks down and it will, availability of parts etc).

AFEX 2010: ASIA FOOD EXPO: Food Ingredients from Cosmic Chemical

I came across Cosmic Chemical as they had on display freshly-baked Pork Floss Bread a la Bread Talk.

Though the size displayed was about 3/4 the size of Bread Talk, I was surprised when the exhibitor said food cost with the pork floss is only P5/pc (P3.50/pc without pork floss).

And if you must have pork floss, the cosmic guy said he knows of a baker in Davao who uses pork floss lookalike but it is much cheaper because it is made of soya!!! Imagine pork floss taste without the fat!!!!

Also, displayed where donuts in a different shape made from their food ingredient and donut maker.

EATING ON A TIGHT TIGHT BUDGET: The Buy One-Take One Hamburger Stand

Many of us grew up seeing the numerous Burger Machines spread-out in gas stations and at the roadside open 24/7. This was later followed by the Minute Burger franchises (owned by the producers of Clover Chips).

But the one that I think shook the market (when there were no tremors in the hamburger stand industry) overnight in almost all places that you can think of (okay maybe not at trinoma, glorietta, megamall) but there must be hundreds sprouting like mushrooms. I am talking about Angel's Hamburger!!!

And how did they cause a tsunami, by offering Buy One, Take ONe!


(courtesy of angel hamburger)

No, just like Burger Machine, Angel's Hamburger never exhibited.

At the Food and Drink Asia 2010 expo at the WTC, I saw 2 franchises for hamburger:


(courtesy of jc fran burger)


(courtesy of galaxy burger)

Question: When is a Scramble not a Scramble? . . . . . . . . Answer: When It is a SCRAMBOI! Huh?

As part of the Scramble Bandwagon, Wynski is offering their version of the Scramble franchise called Scramboi and get this, they are offering it at only P50,000!!!


(courtesy of Scramboi Wynski Enterprises)

NOTICE ALSO THAT AT p5-p10-p15, THEY ARE OFFERING A LOWER SELLING PRICE THAN ICEBREAKER WHICH SELLS AT P7-P10-P17!!!!!

Whatever Happened to the Hong Kong Style Fried Noodle Craze???

If this year it is all about Scramble, last year was all about the HongKong Style Fried Noodles.

Remember Hong Kong Style Fried Noodles at the St Francis Square with their super-long lines of people waiting for their orders of P26 Fried Noodle topped with 2 pcs siomai and garnished with your choice of Spicy, Sweet soy sauce???

How about Taipan Fried Noodle that used to be in all the exhibits???

At the Food and Drinks Asia 2010 Expo at the World Trade Center WTC, I only saw one offering Fried noodle, see below:


(courtesy of Hongkong Fried noodle)

Anak ng Siomai!!! Is This a Price War or Good Value for Customers????

The good thing about the recent Food and Drinks Asia 2010 Expo at the World Trade Center is that they were able to invite the Heavyweights in the Siomai Franchises (Siomai House, Master Siomai and Henlin) whereas in the previous Franchising Expo at the SMX, I think only Master Siomai was present.


(courtesy of Mang Siomai; NOTICE THE 5PCS PER ORDER SIGNAGE on the side of the kiosk)


As I browsed the different Siomai franchises (many with the same Red-Black-White color scheme and similar sounding brand names) I came across two that advertised 5 pcs of Siomai per order (when the unofficial official standard is to have only 4 pcs per order) for the same P25.


(courtesy of JC Fran Siomai King; NOTICE THE WORDS "5PCS SIOMAI" ON THE SIGNAGE IN FRONT)

2 things struck me with this move of a Siomai newcomer:

1. It is good for the customer to have more siomai for the same price (assuming they did not cheapen the quality) and

2. Is this a way of making a Price War?????? (which may not be good for the franchisee).

Siomai-On-Wheels!

From the producers of Mister SYOMAI, they have come up with Siomai-On-Wheels wherein your Siomai outlet is mounted on a bicycle with a sidecar for P50,000 only.

For P250,000, they will grant you exclusivity in a barangay and allow you about 5 moving carts (I think).

Scramble Wars: Pinoy Scramble

I will be featuring a series of Scramble Franchises that I saw at the Food & Drinks 2010 Expo at the World Trade Center.

It is still too soon to tell if the Scramble is a Fad or Not (see my previous post on this) and this is an important question if we are putting our hard-earned savings on the line. My suggestion is to sample as many Scrambles that you can and see which one tastes the best for you-- You have to like your product if you expect to sell a lot of it.

Below is Pinoy Scramble:


(courtesy of pinoy scramble)

The Pinoy Scramble Menu-----



You will notice pricing is the same as Icebreaker Scramble except that there is no small cup at P7.

The Pinoy Scramble booth is just in front of the Icebreaker Scramble booth towards the back portion of the Exhibit hall.

With All These Twisted Minds About Twist Potato, What Happens to the Potato Fries?

Conspicuously absent from the best food cart expo this year, the Food and Drinks 2010 Expo at the WTC, is Potato Corner, the company that started the potato craze. How come?

I saw JC Fran with its supermarket of franchise ideas display Potato Loops.


(courtesy of potato loops)

I saw another potato fries outfit, an older one but with a spiffed up cart, Potato Madness.


(courtesy of potato madness)

I think products of Potato franchises are getting too expensive. Potato Corner at Waltermart North EDSA pulled-out after a year--maybe because an order of fries is now P36 or P48. Twistix is selling at P50/P70 an order. You have to think P50 will get you a Mang Inasal Chicken Rice Meal for P49, Jollibee's Lumpia Shanghai 5pcs with Rice is P39 and Chowking's Rice in a box Chao Fan at P39. Siomai order is at P25.

Question: When is Siomai Not Siomai? . . Answer: When It is Syomai!!!

I told you there are so many siomai franchises during the Food & Drink Expo at the WTC and that most of the siomai outfits are copying each other like having the same Black-Red-White color scheme, the same script and even the same brand initials "M" and "S".

NOW COMES SOMEBODY WHO TRIES TO BE DIFFERENT . . . . . in spelling the word "Siomai" that is . . . . enter Mister SYOMAI!!!!


(courtesy of Syomai siomai)

Well, not really all that different------ its Mister Syomai as in Master Siomai as in Magic Siomai. . . . Oh well.

Question: When is Siomai Not Siomai? . . Answer: When It is Syomai!!!

I told you there are so many siomai franchises during the Food & Drink Expo at the WTC and that most of the siomai outfits are copying each other like having the same Black-Red-White color scheme, the same script and even the same brand initials "M" and "S".

NOW COMES SOMEBODY WHO TRIES TO BE DIFFERENT . . . . . in spelling the word "Siomai" that is . . . . enter Mister SYOMAI!!!!


(courtesy of Syomai siomai)

Well, not really all that different------ its Mister Syomai as in Master Siomai as in Magic Siomai. . . . Oh well.

With So Many Copycats and Origs, Franchisees BE WARNED!!! Research before Signing that Franchise Contract

1. Do you know that its a SIOMAI JUNGLE out there with so many Siomai franchises being offered all claiming to be the best? I noticed some of the Siomai booths even have the same color scheme as the market leader, Siomai House (see below)


(courtesy of siomai house, the current market leader)


(courtesy of master siomai, me thinks the Number 2)



(courtesy of magic siomai, newcomer brand)

THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME COLOR SCHEME (BLACK, WHITE & RED), THE SAME SCRIPT WRITING AND EVEN THE SAME INITIALS "M" & "S". IN THE END, YOU HAVE TO ASK YOURSELF " DO YOU LIKE THE TASTE?" AND ""WOULD YOU BUY AGAIN?"

2. Siomai may be an All-time favorite, but which will you choose to invest your hard-earned savings, the leading brand with the higher franchise fee or the newcomer with the very much lower cash outlay?

3. And for the newcomer brands, will they still be here next year?

4. As one siomai franchisor told me, CHOOSE A BRAND WITH A PROVEN PRODUCT AND AN ESTABLISHED SUPPLY CHAIN ( how to get the supplies from the franchisor's storage and into your outlet. Some are smooth as Fedex and some are downright a Kalbaryo (Mt Calvary).

With So Many Copycats and Origs, Franchisees BE WARNED!!! Research before Signing that Franchise Contract

1. Do you know that its a SIOMAI JUNGLE out there with so many Siomai franchises being offered all claiming to be the best? I noticed some of the Siomai booths even have the same color scheme as the market leader, Siomai House (see below)


(courtesy of siomai house, the current market leader)


(courtesy of master siomai, me thinks the Number 2)



(courtesy of magic siomai, newcomer brand)

THEY ALL HAVE THE SAME COLOR SCHEME (BLACK, WHITE & RED), THE SAME SCRIPT WRITING AND EVEN THE SAME INITIALS "M" & "S". IN THE END, YOU HAVE TO ASK YOURSELF " DO YOU LIKE THE TASTE?" AND ""WOULD YOU BUY AGAIN?"

2. Siomai may be an All-time favorite, but which will you choose to invest your hard-earned savings, the leading brand with the higher franchise fee or the newcomer with the very much lower cash outlay?

3. And for the newcomer brands, will they still be here next year?

4. As one siomai franchisor told me, CHOOSE A BRAND WITH A PROVEN PRODUCT AND AN ESTABLISHED SUPPLY CHAIN ( how to get the supplies from the franchisor's storage and into your outlet. Some are smooth as Fedex and some are downright a Kalbaryo (Mt Calvary).

All Your Questions About Icebreaker Scramble, Siomai House & Twistix Answered at the Best Food Cart Expo Right Now!!!

Would-be Entrepreneurs and small business owners: If you want to know the latest trends in Franchising of Food Carts, go right away to the World Trade Center in Buendia (Gil Puyat Avenue) and meet the franchisors.

This is the FIRST EXPO WHERE ALMOST ALL THE HEAVYWEIGHTS IN FOOD CART FRANCHISING ARE PRESENT:

Siomai - Siomai House, Master Siomai, Henlin

Scramble - Icebreaker Scramble, Pinoy Scramble, Scramble King etc

Potato Twist - Twistix Potato and 2 new entrants

Hotdog - Smokeys

In the coming days, I will be blogging a series of posts about the latest food cart franchises that I saw during the Food and Drinks 2010 Expo and whenever possible, important info as gleaned in my talks with the exhibitors. Stay tuned. See ya!

Not so New News: Siomai House in all MRT Stations

Cementing their hold as being the pre-eminent Steamed Siomai Franchise, all MRT stations are now sprouting Siomai House outlets.

Watch out and be prepared to be massacred if you set-up another brand of siomai outlet opposite a Siomai House outlet.