IT seems like it was only yesterday when Sugbo Mercado was set up on a tiny corner lot at the Garden Bloc with only a handful of vendors. Sugbo Mercado opened on Sept. 26, 2015, with the goal of being the first and biggest year-round weekly food market in Cebu and a venue to display the best of Cebu as well as budding new players in the local food industry in a collaborative environment. Sugbo Mercado also plays host as an alternative open-air events space catering to corporate or product launches and roadshows on top of regular in-house entertainment activities like food showdowns, bands, shows and other promotions.
Legitimization and professionalization of individual vendor’s operations soon came by the game-changing business classification for food market operations especially created by the Cebu City Government in recognition of the regularity and longevity of what is technically a weekend event. This gave rise to other smaller pocket food market operations which subscribe to the Sugbo Mercado business model today.
In 2016, Sugbo Mercado was officially endorsed by the Department of Tourism 7 as Cebu’s “First Weekend Food Market” promoting individual brand identity and presenting diverse culinary delights from the Philippines and other parts of the world while supporting micro food entrepreneurs by providing the perfect venue to enable these to reach and expand their market.”
In the third quarter of 2016, Sugbo Mercado launched its first expansion at the nearby Cebu Business Park with the intent of exploring the lower half of the city as a three-month pop-up. It extended its stay at that location with its relative success and later closed it in the second quarter of 2017 as the neighboring construction works no longer made it feasible to continue operating an open-air food market.
The second location, also intended as a pop-up over the last quarter of 2016, opened at City Di Mare on the South Road Properties to great reception by the South market. The seaside location and silt substrate of the area later proved challenging for tented operations, which prompted management to halt operations in consideration of conversion to a more permanent container van park operation.
Now, Sugbo Mercado has announced its intent to enter Mandaue City with week-long operations and a themed setup in the burgeoning entertainment and lifestyle hub in the area. Expansions to Mactan are also being explored. As to the specifics, organizers said: “We will cross the bridge when we get there.”
In its position as a start-up incubator and with the thrust to encourage job creation versus job-seeking, the Foodtrepreneur Challenge was launched in the second quarter of 2017. Out of 20 applicants, the pool was narrowed down to six finalists, who were first introduced to the public in a grand taste test returning two weeks later for the live selling segment of the competition over two weekends.
In the interim, the contestants received mentorship from Sugbo Mercado management, Sugbo Mercado vendors and event partner AICA Cebu. The competition is intended to simulate the real-world process of start-up food entrepreneurs at Sugbo Mercado where they were judged by the value created by the new product, attractiveness of the market opportunity, the competitive advantage, the operational viability, the capability of the vendor, the capital requirements and financial forecast and the clarity and persuasiveness of the oral defense.
The very first Sugbo Mercado Foodtrepreneur received one-month free booth space at Sugbo Mercado, P20,000 in cash, and a Certificate Culinary Short Course worth P30,000 from AICA Cebu. The competition also serves to invigorate the market with new concepts to add to its diversity, and two of its contestants—the champion and the runner-up—maintain booths to date. (PR)