Homegrown resto chain cooks up expansion plans

This is truly the moment for The Moment Group, as the food and beverage company behind Manam, 8Cuts Burgers and Ooma has found the recipe for success and is now cooking up plans for strategic expansion both here and abroad.

- By RICHMOND MERCURIO

The Moment Group, which opened its first store in Bonifacio High Street in 2012, has built a formidable portfolio of 10 brands, with a total of 107 stores to date.

“I think it’s never a question of how big,” Abba Napa, The Moment Group founder for creative development, told The STAR.

”I remember when Eli (Eliza Antonino), Jon (Syjuco) and I started, Eli made us make a promise that we would only create one restaurant together. And of course, we broke that promise. But it has never been in our plan to aspire for a hundred locations and go nationwide,” she said.

The Moment Group’s portfolio includes Manam, which has the most number of branches at present with 37, followed by Pancit Pancitan with 30 outlets, Mo’ Cookies with 12 branches, 8Cuts Burgers and Din Tai Fung with nine stores each and Ooma with seven shops.

actively want to be introduced to Filipino cuisine, to feel like hayop could be that restaurant for them to do so,” Napa said.