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My Experience with Tealive Cebu at the Ayala Central Bloc

I have tasted several foreign-owned tea shops. My first experience with tea shops was with Chatime (read here). Now, I heard of this new coffee shop (or tea shop, take your pick) called Tealive. At first, I thought it was Taiwanese but when I Googled it--it was Malaysian. It made sense that the company uses only Halal-approved ingredients since Malaysia has a huge Muslim population. The founder is Malaysian-Chinese businessman Bryan Loo of Loob Holdings. Loob here also means inside as the Tagalog language also derives from the Malay language. Tealive would later head to the Philippines. It would be like getting Filipinos closer to their Malaysian heritage after all. 

The branches in Cebu include SM City, SM Seaside, and Ayala Central Bloc. The one I ate was at Ayala Central Bloc. Someone gave me a taste of their sandwich and their signature coffee. I was pretty much impressed that I decided to dine in there. I went to try their lychee tea and chees burger. For a note, their ham sandwich is chicken ham and not chicken plus ham since it's a Halal-approved establishment. I have tasted their chicken ham (and it tastes better than pork harm) and their hamburgers. I'm definitely looking forward to tasting more of their tea.


The Marketing Interactive shows the marketing done by Loo himself. 

Tealive is expanding into Manila and has appointed Mike Dumaual to lead its operations as GM. The Southeast Asian tea chain said on LinkedIn that Dumaual will be leading the charge on business operations across the Philippines, including store expansion strategy and boosting the Tealive brand to be Philippines’ preferred lifestyle tea brand.

Meanwhile, Dumaual has over 22 years of experience with a focus on marketing and brand management, in the F&B and FMCG sectors with such as Mang Inasal, Jollibee, and Burger King. “I’m truly excited to lead Tealive’s grand entry into the Philippine market, knowing how milk tea-crazy this country is. The ambition is not just to make it a milk tea player but a major and respected F&B lifestyle brand that Filipinos will love," he said.

Bryan Loo (pictured), CEO of Loob Holding, told A+M that the Philippines is its first market entry together with its new private equity partner Creador. "Filipinos are, no doubt, huge lovers of milk tea products in Southeast Asia. Together with Creador's extensive local resources in the Philippines, we decided to enter this market to build the next well-loved homegrown milk tea brand. He said:

Our vision is to expand 30 outlets by the end of 2022 and double our store count every other year.

KL Foodie

An additional note is that the current CEO of Tealive is Malaysian actor Ahmad Fikry Ibrahim (left of Loo). Loo mentions the reason why Ibrahim has become part of the Malaysian Tealive family:

“Tealive is home-grown and a proudly Malaysian brand which has spread to nine countries across five continents, serving over five million customers each month,” he said.

“We welcome Fikry to helm the role of Tealive CEO for our coffee campaign. He has also grown from his early days of Lawak Solo to be a wholesome family-oriented and happy-go-lucky celebrity adored by millions of fans,” he added.

“Fikry’s enthusiasm for the Tealive brand is amazing. So, together, we will have much joy and fun serving more coffee throughout Malaysia,” he quipped. 

I find this to be an interesting mix. Taiwanese milk tea found itself expanding in the Philippines. Taiwan's aboriginal tribes have very similar naming to the Philippines' aborigine tribes. In short, the links between Taiwan and the Philippines are closer than you think. I even wrote an article where I pointed to the similarities between Taiwanese natives and Filipino natives. I also wrote an article where I believe that many Asian indigenous groups are from Malaysia. A Malay CEO with brown skin would help Filipinos reconnect. Loo also saw the potential of the Philippines' milk tea population while retaining the use of halal-certified ingredients in Malaysia.

Now, the company is hitting large in Southeast Asia. Going to the Philippines has been a wise move since it's also part of the ASEAN country. I see that the Philippines can learn from Malaysia since both are related closely than one thinks. 

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