Small Business Entrepreneur 2003

Pacita U. Juan
Figaro Coffee, Inc.

Pacita Juan’s willingness to take risks, coupled with her passion for coffee, led her to create Figaro. Together with friends, Juan opened the first Figaro coffee shop in 1993 before Starbucks and Seattle’s Best were introduced to the country. Figaro is now the second largest coffee shop chain in the country, grabbing 30% market share. It is, in fact often mistaken for a foreign brand. From its first store in Makati, Figaro now has more than 30 in the Metro Manila and an outlet in Hong Kong. Juan is now keen on settling up shops in Vietnam, Singapore and China.

While growing the business, CEO Juan saw firsthand the dismal state of local coffee planters. She felt strongly that something had to be done to improve the situation. Through the Figaro foundation, she invites her employees and customers to contribute time, effort and resources to projects that support the local coffee industry such as the Save the Barako tree-planting activities and the Adopt-a-Coffee-Farm project.

Through Adopt-a-Coffee-Farm, Figaro taps idle or underutilized farmlands for the cultivation of coffee beans, which the company buys for its coffee blends. The project was first implemented in Amadeo, Cavite and is now being undertaken in some of the remotest and most depressed areas in Mindanao.

Juan also co0chairs the National Coffee Development Board – a government organization composed of coffee retailers, traders, farmers, rosters and other coffee experts from the agricultural, business and academic sectors. In 2003, Entrepreneur Magazine named her as one of the top 10 entrepreneurs in the Philippines.

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