What started out as a mother’s passion for baking only for family and friends about 40 years ago has now become an icon in Dumaguete City’s food industry.
Sans Rival Cakes and Pastries, a family corporation owned by the Sagarbarrias, marked its 40th year on Tuesday with hopes of branching out to Luzon and other parts of the country as the owners believe in the current rising economy of the Philippines.
Trinidad Sagarbarria Bustamante, one of the six siblings who manages the business and is the younger sister of Rep. Manuel Sagarbarria of the province’s 2nd district, explains that they have two branches in Cebu and they hope to penetrate the Luzon market in the near future.
For now, they have distributors there although these do not carry the family’s business name, commonly known as Sans Rival, Bustamante said.
The current trend now is so competitive that the company also has to keep up with new innovations while not losing its brand and distinct identity that has made it so popular for many people from outside of Dumaguete, she added.
When asked about any secrets, Bustamante said it’s really difficult to say that there is any except that it’s a mixture of everything, such as persistence, having the right people and most importantly, the product.
And of course, Bustamante said the loyal customers should also be recognized for making Sans Rival thrive in the food industry, as she thanked them for their support.
To mark the 40th anniversary of Sans Rival this year, the family-owned company cited 22 of their employees for their loyalty in service, some having served for ten years while one of them, Anastacia Ferrater, known to all as Annie, stood out from the rest for having worked for 40 years since the opening of the business.
Another activity to mark its 40th year is the Sans Rival Under 14 soccer competition for Negros Oriental football teams, to be scheduled later, as well as other activities this year.
According to Bustamante, sans rival is actually a kind of cake and their late mother baked it like no other that friends started placing orders until finally, the mother, known popularly by her nickname Trining, was convinced to open a small outlet with four tables sometime in 1977.
They named the business Sans Rival because of the mother’s popular version of the cake.
It has grown since then to offer sweets, desserts and food snacks of all kinds, with their sylvanas as the number one best seller of all their products.
For his part, Rep. Manuel Sagarbarria disclosed that they chose to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Sans Rival on Tuesday because it also falls on the birthday of their late father.
He disclosed that just recently, a Japanese friend had mentioned about bringing Sans Rival to Japan although the family corporation is not ready yet to go international.
As for franchising, Bustamante said they are carefully treading on this path, as they do not want to make mistakes and there are things to “iron out first”, because it is not easy to go into the franchise business.
“We want to do it properly and so we want to be really ready for that”, she added.
Meanwhile, the corporation also incorporated in today’s activity re-opened and re-launched its Sans Rival Bar and Bistro as it needed upgrading to keep up with the changing times. (Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)
