Dairy Queen branches out in Cebu

Soft serve ice cream Dairy Queen (DQ) is opening four branches in Cebu before the year ends.

On Tuesday, Nov. 6, Manila-based PPI Holdings Inc. opened DQ outlets at the SM City Cebu and Robinsons Cybergate.

Next month, PPI, the franchisee of DQ in the Philippines, will open two DQ branches at the Ayala Center Cebu.

DQ has about 108 stores in the Philippines.

“We are bringing DQ to Cebu and I think 12 years is more than enough of waiting,” said DQ Philippines vice president for operations Erryl Ramos.

PPI chief marketing officer Lorent Adrias said they are “all out for Cebu” in terms of expansion.

“We know that the market is ready for DQ so our focus now is growing Cebu,” he said.

DQ was an early pioneer in the food franchising business, operating for 78 years now. It is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, holding firm of billionaire Warren Buffet. The first DQ store opened in 1940 in Joliet, Illinois.

The soft ice cream brand is known for its Blizzard, which comes in different flavors like chocolate chips, chocolate almond, Oreo, among others. Blizzard is served upside-down, “offering a fun way to enjoy the ice cream.”

“We want to make it fun and at the same time offering it upside down is an affirmation of the quality of the ice cream,” said Adrias, adding that at DQ, they don’t do any shortcuts in preparing their ice cream.

DQ also offers drinks, ice cream cakes, sundaes, ice cream sandwiches and ice cream bars, to name a few.

Food and beverage are among the fastest growing consumer spending sub-segments in the country, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. /