Swan Catering Corporation || Featured Article

THE CATERING BUSINESS: A SUCCESSFUL REINVENTION
(The Foodnest Vol 5 No4)

One of the oldest industries around, the catering business nowadays and getting a major facelift.

Traditionally in Filipino Society, the female members of the family planned the menu, did the marketing and toiled in the kitchen for days prior to a family event whether big or small. But with females making up 50%of today’s workforce, there is very little time (and energy) to plan and execute the food requirements for family affairs, big or small.

And while caterers have long been called upon for weddings, anniversaries and baptisms, the catering business has evolved into a complex industry with such a wide variety of cuisines, services offered and niche marketing for “lifestyle choices”.

“The market is very big and even growing,” says Danny Jacinto, chairman of the six-month-old Food Caterers Association of the Philippines (FCAP) and president of Swan Catering Services. “I really believe the food industry is big enough and there’s room even for the small players.”

The very young caterer’s association is a long-delayed much-awaited forum to ensure the needs and concerns of caterer’s are addressed. Founded by Jacinto and three other caterer’s, the organization started with nineteen members but Jacinto reports that they are getting a lot of inquiries and members are signing up. “It has taken quite sometime for caterers to get together probably because we all service different segments and have varied needs,” he says. “But now we realize that there are quite a lot of common factors we can address collectively, like accreditation in venues, transfer of technology, etc.

The third-generation manager, Jacinto’s mother and maternal grandmother started the landmark bakeshop The Swan in 1966. The eldest of five children, the young Danny would spend weekends at the bakeshop together with his other siblings. Upon graduation from University and after a year working at a bank, he joined The Swan.

“Then cooking was more like a woman’s job,” recalls Jacinto. “And very much unlike today when males are dominating the culinary scene.”

The Swan’s only branch in Quezon City opened a coffee shop adjacent to the bakery in the late 70’s and immediately got requests for catering. By 1990, Swan Catering Services Corporation was born and serviced the growing corporate catering scene.

Today, each of the five Jacinto siblings handle an important segement in the now-diverse food company – a brother handles the bakeshop (The Swan), a sister in-charge of the four corporate canteen concessions and Danny and two siblings handle the catering segment.

“We’re lucky in a big way because my siblings and I had the reputation of The Swan Bakeshop when we started in catering,” Jacinto says. “As a matter of fact, we know that it’s our responsibility to maintain and keep up with that reputation, if not even go beyond the standards set by the previous generation.”

On average, Swan Catering Services one function a day. But it can get crazy during the peak months of October and March.
“Although we do have super-busy months, we service weddings year round,” says Joy Jacinto-Fontanilla, Swan Catering’s Operations Manager. The months leading to Christmas are very busy months for most catering companies, I would think, there were really a lot of parties, both personal and corporate. Because we have been in the business for sometime, the different systems in our organization are in place, which is critical to an operation like ours. With more than a fifty people in our operations, organization is key.”

Like her brother, Fontanilla is unfazed by the growing competition form even the home-based caterers.

“There really is a big market out there for all sorts of caterers,” she confirms. “Besides having a solid and stable reputation to our advantage, we continuously improve and innovate because we know the competition is stiff.”