ACG Set to Hold FAST FORWARD 2025 International Tax and Investment Conference

The Philippines is set to be the host of the International Tax and Investment Conference dubbed "FAST FORWARD 2025" aimed to promote ESG investing in the country. For those who don't know, that stands for Environmental, Social and Governance, a way to evaluate sustainability and ethical impact of a company.

The conference will be very instrumental in this discussion and encouraging more foreign investments in the country. March 26 will start panel discussions, exhibits on local products and the ACG Global Awards to recognize champions and advocates of sustainability. Lead Convenor for this event is Mon Abrea, the CEO of Asian Consulting Group who's tax reform advocacy has moved mountains in the region. To date, ACG has over 191 Billion pesos of savings from BIR cases of their clients. Dr. Bing Limjoco Head of the Philippine Franchise Association and Franchise Asia will be Vice Chairman of this event.

The event will also mark the launch of Mon Abrea's newest book "Re-imagining the World Without Climate Change" which includes real world studies of FAST industries who follow ESG principles, proving it can be done. The press conference also was graced by the one and only Madame Loida Lewis, who was given honors before she left for New York. Young entrepreneur and actress Bea Binene also shared why she trusts ACG and how ESG efforts have made her even trust the firm more in managing her tax and businesses to this date.

Here's the press conference in its entirety!

If you want to join FAST FORWARD 2025 you may email them at itic@acg.ph or visit their website itic2025.helixpay.ph if you want to secure a slot to the event.

Still Making Milestones: The FIGARO Coffee Group

The pandemic must have been hard for businesses and it did stay true with the Figaro Cofee Group. A few months ago, we were in the midst of their executives to see where their group is heading especially this 2024. The event was graced by Mr. Justin Liu the group's Chairman, Ms. Divine Cabuloy their CEO/President, Mr. Mike Barret their COO/EVP and Mr. Petronio Español III the Figaro Group's CFO.

Still Bullishly Expanding

During the pandemic, they have had really hard times as restaurants were either forced to close or not allowed to have dine in customers sans protocols implemented by the government. Though they have coffee shops, Chinese and other brands, their Angel's Pizza was a hit. It was so much of a hit that they had to absorb employees from different corporations who went in the verge of closing down and get them to work in their new branches. The pizza delivery industry sector went huge, and their flavor and food innovations proved positively good during those years. Today, the FIGARO Coffee Group owns 60 Figaro Coffee stores, 116 Angel's Pizza outlets, over 10 Tien Ma restaurants, and 6 Cafe Portofino branches nationwide. That's over 192 all in all, and they are strategically expanding outside the metro in places like Laguna, Pampanga, Rizal, Cebu, Pangasinan, Leyte, Bohol and Davao. They are thinking of more regions next year, and this expansion comes with careful planning and coordination so no quality would be sacrificed in any of their stores.

Financially Strong, Making Milestones

Their Chairman Justin Liu personally explained their recent milestones in terms of finances in the Figaro Group. Their 75% increase in revenues alone had our jaw dropped and they attribute it to the aggressive expansion projects they made outside Metro Manila. Aside from that, a 6% increase in existing stores has helped achieve great sales figures as compared to 2022, that's over Php 2.44 Billion albeit a decline in gross margins back in June which they attribute to inflation and expensive raw materials. Net income came at a whopping Php 462.6 Million because of their wise mitigation in costs and increase in volume (since they did expand stores), undoubtedly a really good reason to celebrate.


They also added the new Creamy Spinach Sushi Bake to the menu a few months ago. With it, is the highly successful Creamy Spinach Dip Pizza. They also launched the "Sama Sama Sa Angel's Pizza" jingle which I'm sure will add to the really good marketing ploys they launched. They also had a few more viands in their other brands plus Oat based drinks which will make the nutty success in their coffee brands.

This is just the start, and I felt there will be more stores for Angel's Pizza in the Visayas and Mindanao region in the coming months. Figaro really weathered through a storm, survived it, and is flourishing! 

Congratulations FIGARO Group!

YES MY LOVE Set to Perform in Singapore Today!

The boys from YES MY LOVE

Seeing Niko, Joshua, RZ, Jeff,  Eli, and Brian from Cornerstone Entertainment's boy group "Yes My Love" must have been a dream for a few, but it certainly happened to me a few days ago. It was an intimate performance with only a few peers from media seeing their performance for the first time as they embark in a concert to be held in Singapore (today at 2PM, you can still get tickets at sistic.com.sg) at the Esplanade Recital Studio in the Merlion state. 

It's called SPECTACLE! which they will do together with other PPOP and SPOP groups namely Estelle Fly, Alfred Sun, BINI, BGYO and XOXO. For those who don't know, Yes My Love was just formed a few months ago comprised of the defunct members of TOP Class and a few artists they put together from Cornerstone Entertainment's pool of talents. I didn't have to research much on their legitimacy because as soon as they opened their pipes, I just said WOW, these guys can really sing! Plus the fact that they were doing it with a routine that has so much vigor, sexy vibes, reminiscent of RnB and boyband groups in the 90's, but still have that energetic technical prowess and moves you would see in PPOP which makes them quite different from their peers in the business. Here's a two part interview we did with them after their short program, I hope you get to know them even better after this!

(My apologies in advanced as some parts may skip because resources on my phone might have caused it, I was uploading videos as I was recording and I only noticed when someone pointed it out on YT comments ha!)

Then we had a few naughty questions asked, something fans (143's which love them) would absolutely adore. 

I would like to take this bit and thank everyone at Cornerstone Entertainment for arranging this very intimate press conference so we'd be able to get to know the boys of YES MY LOVE. I can't wait to see them get the attention they deserve especially now that they have an international stint in happening in Singapore. As an extra treat, here's some post event shots from the nice boys of YES MY LOVE!

Now make sure you follow Cornerstone Entertainment's and YES MY LOVE's social channels for a good dose of love from these boys. Let them sing and dance their way to your heart now, and don't tell them that I already have my bias LOL. Again, if you're in Singapore, you can still catch them today!