Mang Inasal
Youngest listed of the Forbes’
The Philippines 50 richest, on the 39th spot was Edgar “Injap”
Sia, owner of Mang Inasal, one of the fast rising food restaurants in
the Philippines and of which has become a modern icon of the Ilonggo culinary
culture.
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| Edgar "Injap" Sia owneer of Mang Inasal |
“In” stands for Intsik and “Jap”
for Japanese, Edgar was nicknamed “Injap” because he is originally from China
while Jaruda, his mother's name, is originally from Japan. He came from a family
of business persons and was expected to take business-related course in college
but instead he took up Architecture.
At age of 10, Sia already helps
out in the family business where he believes he developed his sense for
business. By the Age of 20, he dropped-out of College bored by the daily routine
of going to and from school and tried his luck in business, a decision that
proved to be the turning point of his life and career path. Sia tried his hand
running various businesses which includes Four-Season Hotel, a 58-room three
star hotel owned by his family followed by Mister Labada, a Laundromat, then
Injap Color Express, a photo developing shop; all based in Iloilo.
Sia was 26 when he cooked the
idea of Mang Inasal, a Filipino Style food chain restaurant that specializes in
grilled chicken. Like any other typical guy, Sia likes to dine out too and his
favorite food was the fried chicken served by the fast food chains Jollibee and
McDonald’s, but then he thought that it
was too foreign and westernized it didn’t suit the taste of typical Ilonggos or
Pinoys. Wanting to be different, Sia thought of an idea of food outlet serving
Filipino-style cuisine in a restaurant-type setting.
When a 250 meter parking space in
Robinson’s mall in Iloilo was offered to Sia, he immediately took it even
without a concrete idea of what business he wants to put up with the use of the
money he borrowed from his parents. After analyzing the different culinary specialties
of our country’s 16 regions he came up with the idea of grilled chicken made
from local herbs and spices. A unique entry to the chicken business.
“The price was so attractive that I couldn’t forego it, even if I had
no business plan in mind. I bought the space not knowing what to do with it!
You can say that the space came ahead of the concept.” Edgar Sia says on
one of his interviews on Planet Philippines about his journey in building his
fast food restaurant.
The first store of Mang Inasal
was positioned as an alternative quick service restaurant, serving
charcoal-grilled chicken, rice wrapped in banana leaf and uses bamboo sticks
for its skewers. He also offered unlimited rice, becoming the first
quick-service restaurant to do so. The flavors were
distinctively Filipino, as was the earthy décor with wooden tables, handmade
paper lamps and walls painted in orange, green and yellow.
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| Mang Inasal Paborito Value Meal |
Mang Inasal
has since become the modern icon of the Ilonggo culinary culture.
“You know weeks before we opened the very first Mang
Inasal branch, my goal then was already to expand it nationwide. In fact I can
recall in one of our lunches at home over 8 years ago, I passionately told my
wife and my younger sister that one day, they will see a Mang Inasal everywhere
they go in the Philippines!”
“But they just smiled at me, they
thought I was just day dreaming! They didn’t know I was dead serious!” –Sia says on one of his Commencement speech
last 2012.
Today, Edgar Sia has reached
almost 464 branches of Mang Inasal nationwide and is doing its fair share of
making employment with over 10,000 employees around its system. He is also a
help in the Agricultural Industry and for farmers for the regular supply of his
ingredients and materials like banana leaves, bamboo sticks, calamansi, soy
sauce and others of his materials and ingredients.
In 2010, Edgar Sia received an
Urban Leadership Award from the Canadian Urban Institute for Entrepreneurship and
for his “outstanding contributions” to the enhancement of the public realm and
the quality of life in the Metro Iloilo-Guimaras area. And in 2011, he was recognized
as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Men of the Philippines for Entrepreneurship
with no less than President Noynoy Aquino handed the prestigious award in
ceremonies at Malacañang Palace.
Sia’s tips from his commencement
speech last 2013 –“you know, money is
like human blood; it is best when shared continually. Medical studies have proven that it is
healthy to donate a certain quantity of your blood every year, so that your
system can create new one. That is exactly the same as money. You should not
wait until you become very rich for you to start helping others.”
At age 36, Sia has earned the
distinction as the Philippines’ youngest billionaire he never dreamed of and for
two years, from 2011 to 2012, Sia made it to the elite list of US-based Forbes
magazine as one of the 40 richest Filipinos. With sales of Mang Inasal booming
over the past years, his net worth has zoomed steadily, amounting to a
mind-boggling P5.8 billion as of last June.
DON’T BE AFRAID IF PEOPLE THINK
YOUR IDEA IS CRAZY. The mind of each and one of us works differently. Don’t be
discouraged of the negative things you’ll hear from other people instead use
those words to improve your ideas and create a more sensible concept. Have a
goal! Throw it forward, and make it your finish line, then leave it there.
“For you to excel you really have to work very hard. You have to work
more than anybody else around you.”-Edgar Sia, The Man behind Mang Inasal
sources:
http://agpahn.net/commencement-speech-edgar-injap-sia-mang-inasal-3-31-12/
http://opinyon.com.ph/index.php/article/read/edgar-sia-ii--youngest-billionaire
http://www.forbes.com/global/2011/0718/philippines-billionaires-11-edgar-sia-mang-inasal-mr-bbq.html
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