Candy Corner didn’t have it easy from the beginning, says owner Ricky Andres in this interview with Pinoycentric. Like all businesses, they had to hurdle crises of all sorts–from a warehouse getting burned and almost losing everything, to proving that their concept was workable–before reaching sweet success.

PinoyCentric: You started as a toy importer back in the nineties. What kind of toys were you selling?
Ricky Andres: We started importing stationery, Disney toys, Crayola activity kits, and original Disney and Barney VHS tapes, and in 1995 we finally got the exclusive distribution rights for Lisa Frank. We didn’t have a store, but we wanted one so badly so we used all our connections to get a space at Glorietta.

After two years of trying, we finally got a space in 1996, but we couldn’t open our store because most of our products were already available in Rustans, SM, and a couple of boutiques in Makati. It didn’t make much sense for us to compete with our retailers. So as not to miss the opportunity, we proposed to open a candy store instead. This was the birth of Candy Corner.

Gina Dejoras remembers her first encounter with Russian cookies as though it was only yesterday. “I was a little girl when my aunt brought home a canister of Russian cookies. I remember the taste distinctly because it was really delicious and I couldn’t stop eating it,” she says.

Diners sample the food prepared in the Food&HotelAsia trade show.

Filipino buyers looking for new product sources and equipment, seeking foreign partnerships and joint ventures, and wanting to know of developments in the Asian food and hospitality industry would find the Food and Hotel Asia 2008 relevant to their needs.

A group of young entrepreneurs has made its mark in the Philippine dessert scene with Cerealicious, the country’s first dessert bar.

The team behind Cerealicious–composed of Crissy Balatbat, Charlene Falcis, Joie Lester Fuentes, Katrina Ronas, Natasha Tabucal, and Andrew Varona, all in their twenties–conceptualized the idea of a cereal-based dessert in December 2005.

For former chef Ryan David and organizational communications graduate Philippe Arenillo, that is. With a capital of P40,000 (US$981), the two friends ventured into a T-shirt business they call the Perfect White Shirt. They initially sold Philippine-made plain cotton-spandex (90/10) shirts until they discovered local T-shirt brand David and Goliath.

“We liked how their graphic shirts looked, and it inspired us to make our own,” says Ryan. With his and Philippe’s designs in mind, they pulled in some artist friends to draw up the look they wanted.

Five friends, all BS Management students at the Ateneo de Manila University, are the brains behind Zigzaggen, a ladies’ handbag made of—surprise, surprise—newspapers.

It started out as a school project for Geline Chua Caedo, Richard Lim, Twinky Valeriano, Rachel Sy, and Angel Talastas—all in their twenties—who pooled together their ideas and P20,000 capital to start the business in October 2007.