There is a reason why Potato Corner’s mascot, Spudster, has four strands of hair on its head. That’s because Potato Corner, a billion-peso food franchising business that started in 1992 as a food cart operation, and that expanded globally to countries, including the United States, Australia, Kuwait, Singapore, and more, had four founders – the originator, his best friend, the source of inspiration (and supply), and the technical expert.
One of these four founders, Jose Magsaysay, Jr., or better known in the industry as “Jomag,” was ultimately responsible for building and scaling Potato Corner to the empire it is today, a global brand with a huge following, and a massive footprint of more than 1,400 stores around the world. Jomag is highly-celebrated in the Philippine startup ecosystem, often referred to as the man behind Potato Corner. He is sought after as an adviser, consultant, and thought leader in how to build a successful franchise. And perhaps, even more, Jomag is heralded for leading the company to a successful exit – a dream all startups yearn for.
In March 2022, restaurant operator Shakey’s Pizza ventures Inc., together with its subsidiary Wow Brand Holdings, Inc., acquired Potato Corner – lock, stock, and barrel. The acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, included all the assets and intellectual property of Potato Corner, as well as shares in a Singapore entity. In absorbing the company, Shakey’s is now running all company owned and franchised stores, and continuing to build on the iconic brand.
Returning to its origins, there is a story left untold that today’s entrepreneurs may have missed. Jomag was the last man standing among the four founders, and went as far as compromising his health to achieve great success. Naturally, those seeking to write history will default to what’s been chronicled in recent years. That said, there is much to be said if we know where to start.
As a witness to the emergence of Potato Corner since the early nineties, I had a front row seat. So, before Shakey’s adds its thumbprint and takes the flavored French fries business to new heights, let’s go back in time to uncover Potato Corner’s true origin – from the vantage point of its originator.
Flashback to 1992. While working for a multinational ad agency as a division manager, one of my account executives, Jenny Bautista-Wieneke, brought flavored French fries to our office in Pasay Road, Makati, for us to sample. It was her husband Jorge’s business idea, she said. Jorge was a talent caster for another ad agency back then. Jorge and Jenny married and had children at a young age, and both were constantly looking for ways to make ends meet. The flavored fries were, indeed, novel and delicious.
A year later, I moved to Jorge’s ad agency as a management supervisor. One day, Jorge, my account supervisor Martin Villonco, and I were on our way to a client to present talents for a TV commercial. Along the way, Jorge asked Martin, who was behind the wheel, to drive by SM Megamall so he could do something really quick. With Martin pulling to the curbside, Jorge quickly alighted from the vehicle, popped the trunk open, and pulled out a case of frozen French fries. “I’ll be right back,” he said.
“What was that all about?” I asked him upon returning to our illegally parked vehicle. As we drove to the client’s office, Jorge told us all about his kiosk business, Potato Corner.
Fast forward to today. As managing editor of The Independent Investor (TII), I recently had a nice, long chat with Jorge Noel Wieneke (JW) – now a serial entrepreneur, business development consultant, motivational speaker, educator, angelpreneur, and MSME advocate. More than just to set the record straight, my purpose was to challenge his memory and pick his mind for anything we may have missed in what Jorge describes as a “wonderful love story” in business.
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TII: Bring us back to that “aha” moment, Jorge. How did it all start?
JW: It all started because I was tired of being an employee, tired of my job, TV shoots left and right, when I met this guy who was a talent for Close-Up toothpaste. He arrived in a cool Toyota Lite Ace van with a CD player, walking around with a big bulky cell phone that I imagined only from James Bond movies. I asked him what he did aside from modeling and he said he had a business selling flavored popcorn.
I started asking him questions about his business. I became so curious, asking him how he started and how much he was making. The questions were getting more and more personal and intense.
Each break from the shoot, I went back to him to ask more questions. I became even more curious and, most of all, inspired. I wanted to be like this guy.
That shoot took place during Holy Week, so we all had to take a break until the shoot would resume on Black Saturday. But while my family and I were enroute to the beach in my Dad’s Combi, I couldn’t take my mind off the business.
While in the van, I started thinking, what is that one thing that my kids love? Every time we went to Jollibee, Cindy’s, and McDonalds, they would ask for French fries. I observed that all kids would always order fries together with their burgers. So, I figured, why don’t I get these fries and add flavouring, just like what my friend did to his popcorn?
While we were still in the van, I recall trying to reach for a bag with toilet paper in it, but couldn’t quite get to it. So, as soon as we got to the beach, I hurriedly scribbled my idea on the toilet paper lest it disappear into thin air.
Come Easter Sunday, I went to see my best friend, the late Danny Bermejo, to tell him of my idea. Dan was my most trusted and dearest friend as he was the one who introduced me to my wife, Jenny. At that time, Danny and I were in the same boat, with jobs that we didn’t like doing anymore. I pitched the concept. Dan liked it and was so excited to start on our dream venture.
TII: What steps did you take to bring this idea to life? Who were the key personalities involved?
JW: Among all my friends at the time, there was this one older guy that we looked up to, who has a background in the corporate world. We met with him and he liked the idea so much that he suggested we invite big investors, take out loans, start big, and launch with a big shebang. We got scared as we felt it was too big of a responsibility. He must’ve felt that we didn’t buy his ideas so he slipped away and didn’t get in touch with us anymore (although looking back, he was right about launching this big time with all the works, but our immature, inexperienced, and unexposed minds couldn’t grasp it then).
We thought he might end up doing it on his own. We had to move fast. The fastest way we could move was to partner with the Close Up “talent-model” – Ricky Montelibano. His business was George Popcorn (named after his dog, not me). I asked if we could meet with him and he invited us to his home in Paco.
It was also perfect because Dan was an Ilonggo, just like Ricky; and me, just pretending to be one – having studied in La Salle Bacolod for grade school. We pitched the idea to Ricky and he fell in love with it. So, we, the three partners, started working on my idea of having flavored French fries as a business.
Ricky started sourcing from Danny Garza, his supplier of flavoring. Mind you, at that time, I really had no idea where these flavorings came from as they weren’t really the “in” thing yet.
I then started talking to a work colleague, Grace Marci, a creative director at Lintas Manila, the advertising agency I worked at, to brainstorm on what a good name for the product would be. Jenny (my wife) and I wanted to capture that “corner,” or niche for potatoes, and, lo and behold, Potato Corner was born. Grace liked the name and she personally developed the logo and cart design for us. She didn’t pass it on to any artist and, instead, did it herself.
Dan then started talking to his uncle, the owner of Allied Metals for the cart fabrication. But, there was one important thing still missing – the fries. At that time, one could not buy French fries from Quiapo or the frozen section of the supermarket. In fact, only the big players could import these frozen fries by the container load. We couldn’t use fresh potatoes either as these would quickly turn soggy, having much water content and hence would absorb the oil more. We did not have the funds to import container vans full of frozen French fries so we were stumped.
Enter my father-in-law, Juan Bautista, who was the Import Director of the Central Bank. He knew the big-name importers and, as such, patched us with Mr. Bernard Tiu. Mr. Tiu allowed us to piggy back our miniscule orders with the McDonalds and Jollibees of this world. We finally had the fries, the flavoring, the branding, and design, but not any of us knew how to cook French fries properly, what the right temperature was, length of time needed, etc.
That night, we were so frustrated as all our hopes were pinned on this concept. All three of us had families to feed and we had dreams of proving to our in-laws that we could support our families and give them so much more. So, Ricky suggested for us to meet with his brother-in-law who worked at Wendy’s, and perhaps hire him as a consultant. We would meet every Friday. So, on one succeeding Friday, we met over BBQ and beer, and got to meet Jose Magsaysay. Jomag gave us a lot of input on the operations side and then Ricky took us aside and suggested that we take him in as a fourth partner because, like us, Jomag was also struggling – same boat, same dreams. So, Dan told me to decide and I said yes to equal shares for all. It was a perfect start to a very good love story in business. Everybody was working towards the success of this project.
TII: Things were finally coming together. How did you progress from here?
JW: Quatro Foods Resources was then born. Jomag offered his garage to be our office and stockroom. But to make this into reality, we set deadlines to bring in the money. I was 55 years old. If my memory serves me right, I think the money that was to be raised was only P16k++. I got half of my share from Cocobank, my salary loan from Lintas, and the other half from my Dad as a loan. After that, we needed more funds, so Ricky lent the company money.
This business wouldn’t have seen light if we had no space to sell our French fries from. Unfortunately, the first attempt to apply for space in the mall was rejected. It was Ricky, who was exposed to and knew the leasing personnel in the malls, who applied. SM Megamall leasing management suggested that we be situated among the food carts and not the main mall as we had frying. We didn’t want to be located in the food court because people didn’t go there to buy snacks but meals.
So, I asked a favor once again from my father-in-law, this time to write to SM’s Ms. Tessie Sy-Coson, and possibly appeal on our behalf for space in the mall and voila – we got prime space for a fledgling startup at Building A, lower ground floor, right beside the SM Department Store entrance.
TII: So, there were four co-founders at the start. As the business progressed towards retail, what were the responsibilities of each? How did that division of labor work out?
JW: Danny resigned from his job and committed 100% to the business as well as Jomag. Ricky just wanted to be a silent partner. As for me, I resigned but the then president of Lintas, Wally Reyes, did not allow me to leave and asked me to stay for nine more months.
I was in charge of business development, marketing, and mall leasing. Jomag handled operations, and Dan was responsible for keeping the staff in line as he was very strict and authoritative. Dan also dabbled in operations as well as in finance. Since I was still employed, I took care of deliveries during weekends and crammed cases of frozen French fries into the trunk of my 2-door Dodge Colt and sometimes stacked them right beside my kids in the car. I’d also do the rounds and collect the money from the retail outlets during weekends.
TII: Now operational with the first prototype kiosk, how did the market react to your product? What learnings did you take forward as you planned to open more stores?
JW: October 15 was the birthday of my Dad and that was the time we were going to set up our first cart in SM Megamall for the next day’s opening. Dan and I had dinner first at my house before heading to the mall, with butterflies in our stomachs. We were betting on how much we were going to sell the next day. One said P3,000. Another P2,500. But, boy, were we surprised to get a total of more than P15,000 that day!
My main takeaway in the beginning was that one’s idea and concept is totally different from what the outcome is when in operations. There are many learnings every day, but one has to be agile, vigilant, and observant to see and hear these things. A concept is different from reality and the reality is ever evolving. We’ve also learned to listen to customers, know their needs and deal with them, each one differently.
The market responded very positively as the lines never ended, even on weekdays. Mind you, social media was still non-existent and yet word-of-mouth helped spread the Potato Corner name. We quickly expanded by giving family and friends franchises of the business but, at the time, we had no formal knowledge of franchising.
We also learned that when starting a business, one really has to be very resourceful. There was no internet, no Google, no start-up, and entrepreneurship lectures and seminars then. We were forced to literally search for the different aspects of our business manually. Entrepreneurs now are so fortunate to have everything at the tip of their fingers but they should still keep resourcefulness as a trait. I think this is required of any startup.
We learned to be resilient. Failure is not an option. There were so many challenges that we faced but we chose to learn from the mistakes and moved forward. The first cart of Potato Corner was made of aluminum. It took so long to manufacture, was slightly more expensive, and became a logistical nightmare. We learned that there were things wrong with the cart while we were already operational. The Imarflex home deep fryers available in the market were not up to par as they couldn’t handle the heavy demands of our cooking, so Dan had Allied Metal customize deep fryers for us. These deep fryers were the ancestors of the fryers you see now. In fact, we were the first ones to have these made in the country. So, with every hurdle, we bounced back, not letting anything stop us.
TII: Who came up with the Potato Corner franchising model, and what were the main principles or features behind it?
JW: It was basically an effort led by Dan, Jomag, and myself. There was a joint venture model and an outright franchise being executed, but during that time, no one really knew yet what franchising was unless you franchised from the big players. We were basically just winging it.
We started first with the JV model and adjusted along the way. We controlled the supplies, from fries, flavoring, oil, packaging, and uniforms, to the manufacturing of the kiosk. We had our own contractor and equipment. The franchise package included the cart, equipment, and small wares.
TII: At this point, you were expanding with more locations, more stores, more franchisees. Can you walk us through those milestones?
JW: After SM Megamall, we were given space at Robinson’s Galleria. And since SM Megamall created a stir, we got the attention of Ayala Malls where we were given a kiosk right in the middle of Glorietta. These three outlets helped make a name for Potato Corner, opening within months of each other, and quickly establishing Potato Corner as a brand.
Soon after, friends of friends started getting franchises until we reached over 100 outlets in three years, the 100th store being in SM South Mall. Franchising helped expand the business, as I recall, there were more franchised outlets than company-owned. We soon had to open a company in the south to take care of the Visayas and Mindanao areas. Southern Island was born as a sister company, headed by Jojo Montinola, Dan’s good friend. He was in charge of expanding the Potato Corner franchise into the southern islands and eventually became a partner. Hence, Quatro Foods became Cinco Holdings.
TII: Business was booming. In spite of the economic and political challenges our country has faced over the years, Potato Corner proved to be resilient. But what was really the turning point for you, Jorge? What made you opt out of the business, and divest your shares?
JW: After my Mom died, it was my first encounter with anxiety and depression, and I was really, really in a downward spiral. And then, after some time, Dan passed away too, contributing further to my depression. My buddy, my partner, my best friend, and ally was gone. It seemed that the charm and allure of our baby, Potato Corner, went with him and I couldn’t bring myself to work on it anymore.
I announced to my partners that my 25% share was up for sale as the board had the first right of refusal. They said they were not ready to buy my shares at my price so I offered it outside, the first one being Dan’s widow, Marivic Ong-Bermejo. She tearfully declined as she already had Dan’s shares and didn’t want more. She wasn’t ready. I offered it to Jomag at a friendly price and he agreed to personally buy my shares over coffee at the original Starbucks in the Power Plant Mall, and he promised to grow the business. I found out years later that my shares were actually ploughed back into the company.
TII: With Potato Corner expanding internationally, what was it like watching Jomag succeed from the sidelines? Were you still in touch? Any regrets?
JW: During the time of my divestment, for me it was a good decision. But, of course, looking at it now, it seems like a bad decision. To be honest, of course, there is some regret because I poured in all the effort and years of making the concept grow from idea to reality. There was some sort of ownership to the idea as it was my baby after all. But I think God had a bigger plan for me.
Like in any love story, there are challenges, drama, and climax. The characters in this story played out their own roles but my role had to end just like Dan’s role prematurely ended. Potato Corner wouldn’t be Potato Corner now without the four hairs on the Potato Mascot’s head, which were the four partners.
Jomag kept his promise to grow the business, the promise when we shook hands at Starbucks Rockwell. He said, “Wag ka mag-alala, aalagaan ko ang baby mo (Don’t worry, I’ll take care of your baby).” And he did. Jomag made Potato Corner an international brand and I give all the credit to him. After the Shakey’s buyout, all our roles have ended now for Potato Corner. All I ask for is to be kept in the history of Potato Corner even for years to come.
TII: Hindsight is 20/20. Looking back now, Jorge, as a highly seasoned entrepreneur, what would you have done differently?
JW: Let’s be honest, I really made a mistake, but that had already happened, and I have moved on to better things. But when you ask me what I could have done differently, the first thing that comes to mind is the exit plan. We were all so excited to jump into this business, each taking on roles but we never got to talk about what happens when someone wants out. I wish there was a definite exit plan that we crafted so that it would have been easier.
This would be a good lesson to others too. I also wish I was more mature to not let personalities and emotions interfere with the business. I should have just taken a sabbatical, became a passive director, and maintained my seat on the board until I was ready to come back. I also should have learned the talent of letting go. As they say, too many cooks spoil the broth.
Everyone was a leader and wanted to lead. I could have stayed in the background for a bit and let others take the reins. These are all in the past and, as a young entrepreneur, I have learned from these lessons. And as the adage goes, no pain, no gain.
TII: Moving on from Potato Corner, talk to us about your advocacy in helping MSMEs/entrepreneurs. How did you get involved with Go Negosyo?
JW: In any story, there is always a new chapter, a new hero will come in, a new role will surface. I think this is what God wanted for me – my new role is to share my learnings, my wisdom and experience, and the concept that an ordinary person can excel and improve his life through entrepreneurship.
So, even if I was no longer with Potato Corner, people continued to acknowledge me as one of the proponents. People invited me to talks, students wrote about us in their theses and projects, school symposiums, and also ex-officemates, family members, and friends saw me as their go-to guy to ask about entrepreneurship and business.
And then, one “great” school, the blue one, invited me to a symposium to talk about entrepreneurship. There were two guests at the time, myself and Ed Tarog, who was my former boss in Lintas. Ed was the first one to speak and then when my turn came, everybody took notes, applauded, and even gave me a standing ovation. I was sweating like heck that even my underwear was soaked, but it seems I did well.
Eventually, the head of the Ateneo Center for Continuing Education (CCE), Glen San Luis, approached me to invite me to be part of the school as a resource person. From resource person, I became a lecturer, then a Program Director and regular faculty. Some programs I ran included Retail Diploma, Restaurant Management, Franchise Management, and Retail Site Selection.
Go Negosyo wanted Ateneo CCE’s support, and Glen recommended me as the representative. I was then interviewed by PCE Go Negosyo’s former Executive Director and former DTI secretary Ramon Lopez to become a pioneer mentor, dubbed “Angelpreneur.” I agreed and I was happy to be doing talks, lectures, and seminars left and right. I was conducting these talks both in a classroom setting in Ateneo, while doing plenary talks for Go Negosyo. Having been exposed to Mon Lopez and Joey Concepcion, I was inspired by their advocacy and wanted to do more.
So, I created my own personal advocacy called KalyeNegosyo in 2013. KalyeNegosyo is a 6-month long entrepreneurship program that aims to help micro, small, and medium enterprises legitimize, level-up, and improve their businesses, free of charge. Because of my visibility in entrepreneurship circles, I became a brand ambassador for PLDT and was called Mr. KaAsenso, the business go-to guy for budding entrepreneurs.
I have been mentoring and lecturing for over 15 years now, and I don’t see myself ending this role. I have my story to tell and for as long as people can learn from my wins as well as my losses, I will continue to relate my story. For me, the driving force to success is pain, and that is what I teach my mentees.
TII: Now you are a serial entrepreneur, founding Tokyo Tempura. How’d that come about? And how is it doing now?
JW: Tokyo Tempura is a validation for me that I can create a brand again from concept to reality. It is also good to be able to talk about my own business from a personal standpoint of ownership rather than just my past.
In 2012, there came a eureka moment for me when I saw people lining up for tempura in the buffets. My kids loved tempura so much that every weekend we would find ourselves either lining up in buffets or at Japanese restaurants. Tempura was quite expensive and to be eating it every week is no joke.
So, we felt it was time to introduce a more affordable tempura. We wanted to democratize tempura. We tried selling it in bazaars and people were very receptive to it. Until one day, an old supplier from Potato Corner called me and wanted to meet for coffee. Apparently, he wanted to know what concepts I had in the pipeline that he could fund. So, I pitched the idea of Tokyo Tempura, murang (cheap, affordable) tempura, and he liked it.
I was back to square one of starting a company again, without staff, doing things on my own. It was both humbling and exciting at the same time. Then after two years, just when Tokyo Tempura became a success, he told me that he just wanted to jumpstart my business because he knew ever since the Potato Corner days that I was the creative-minded one and I would move heaven and earth to make something a reality. He then just asked for his investment back and gave me the company.
So, we created a new company composed of family members and loyal employees who’ve stayed with me through the years. The big difference in this company now is that it is my family that I am working with. It gave me an opportunity to speak to my son at a different level, giving him an education outside of the home.
To be working with my wife is a challenge and a blessing too. My son is tasked with franchising while my wife takes care of marketing. We all have our roles to play. And together, we reached over a hundred stores nationwide and were given the Agora Award in 2017.
From 2012, we immediately used franchising as an expansion model for the brand. We sacrificed the short-term income by giving away franchises with no franchise fees just to jumpstart the business. Unorthodox or stupid – as some more seasoned experts from the industry would say, but, this was what led us to more than a hundred stores. I broke the norms.
During the pandemic, I was more focused on the plight of the micro, small, and medium enterprises because that time I was the President of the Association of Filipino Franchisers Inc. (AFFI) and the MSMEs have a very big place in my heart, having mentored, helped, and hand held many of them through the years. To be honest, I reacted a bit late to pivot my company, but pivot we did and we were one of the first brands to sell our frozen products online as a tempura home kit. This essentially was what helped us survive the pandemic.
Even before the lockdown happened, we were already poised to launch our cloud kitchen and so, during lockdown, we were already equipped to start selling online. To protect the jobs of our staff, we reconfigured the structure to accommodate online selling. The ops guys who had a knack for creative became content managers, the roving supervisor became the online order taker and booker, and so on and so forth. We saw that community selling was booming so we gave away free franchises to help those people who lost their jobs, whose stores started closing, and allowed resellers to sell our frozen kits. Our goal, aside from helping people, was also to jumpstart our commissary, to bring in cash flow.
TII: We really can’t end without asking you this, Jorge – that “one” advice to budding entrepreneurs?
JW: I’ll give you three.
Life is not built to be easy. One has to accept the reality that the journey will be rough. The key to success is really to have a positive attitude. One must see his plan/dream clearly.
Next, one should believe in oneself that you can do it and deliver, remove all self-doubt.
Lastly, one should act on your dream/plan, otherwise it will just remain a plan/dream.
‘Pag di mo gawa di mo kita…if you don’t do it you will not learn from it; if you don’t do it you will not earn from it!
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Origin stories are always great because no matter how much has been written on the same topic, there will always be something that may have gotten buried or missed over the years. Potato Corner’s beginnings are really one for the books. Four founders got together out of necessity, to solve their own problems of survival and financial stability, went through the rough patches together and played out their own destinies that may or may not have turned out as planned.
During the interview, Jorge Wieneke shared a screenshot of a social media post that Jomag wrote back in October, 2015. In a touching tribute to the originator of Potato Corner, he wrote: “Jorge is always originating, always thinking of something new and always helping someone in need. I will always be thankful to him and will never be able to repay what he has done for me.”
There is no doubt that Shakey’s takeover can only bring Potato Corner to even greater heights. More importantly, co-founders Jorge Wieneke and Joe Magsaysay, Jr. are far from hanging up the towel, as both are now clearly paying it forward with hopefully more adventures to come.
In memory of Dan Bermejo+ and Grace Marci+.