Coca- Cola PH spreads holiday cheer
ReSTART program aims to help MSMEs start, build businesses
For years, Irene Franco Simon earned a steady income from sewing. She had regular customers, mothers and students who frequented her small shop.
Her business, however, proved to be no match for the COVID-19 pandemic.
With quarantine restrictions and education going online, orders for school uniforms and work clothes dried up and the 63-year-old’s enterprise was decimated.
Simon thus became among the thousands of microenterprises laid low by the raging health and economic crises that may not be resolved until at least the latter part of next year.
The single mother’s fortunes turned, however, when she was given the privilege to be part of the Rebuilding Sari-Sari Stores Through Access to Resources and Trade (ReSTART) program spearheaded by Coca-Cola Philippines in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and other public and private partners.
ReSTART, which targets to reach 15,000 microretailers whose enterprises were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and the community quarantines, has three components to help microretailers safely and confidently operate in the new normal.
P157-million bridge loan fund—Together with DTI and two of the country’s leading microfinancial institutions ASA Philippines and Alalay sa Kaunlaran, Inc.
Consortium for a Safe Store Movement—Coca-Cola is driving an industry movement together with DTI and Small Business Corporation to promote safe store operations in the context of the new normal amid the pandemic, focusing on the safety of retailers, customers, and the community. Leading fast moving consumer goods have been onboarded to further support the movement.
Access to Safe Store Education—In partnership with the United States Agency for International Development and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, the ReSTART program will also provide access to online training and education focusing on retail business reopening and management during the pandemic. It aims to translate the government-issued safety guidelines and protocols into a more simple practical and easily understandable guide for microretailers to adapt.
Through ReSTART, Simon was able to secure a loan to open up a new venture, a sari-sari store.
Also benefiting from ReSTART is Anne Chavez, whose sari-sari store sales likewise dropped because of the pandemic as the number of customers who felt safe enough to go over to her shop dwindled.
Through ReSTART,she was able to secure an interest-free loan of P10,000 plus products from Coca-Cola. This helped her augment her product offerings that are popular with her customers thus leading to an increase in her sales to support her family.
Simon and Chavez are two of the 9,000 microretailers benefiting from the ReSTART program that was born out of Coca-Cola’s commitment to the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) sector that forms the backbone of the country’s business sector.
“Helping out microretailers has always been Coca-Cola’s commitment. When the community quarantine measures were imposed, the company has recognized how this has greatly affected the businesses, especially the microretailers such as sari-sari store and carinderia owners,” said Jonah de Lumen-Pernia, public affairs, communications and sustainabily director of Coca-Cola Philippines.
She noted that when quarantine controls were at their strictest, nearly half of sari-sari store owners and 75 percent of carinderias or neighborhood eateries temporarily closed, based on data from the Philippine Association of Stores and Carinderia Owners.
Unfortunately, many were unable to reopen even with the relaxation of lockdowns starting June.
Coca-Cola Philippines wanted to help as many microretailers as possible to reopen and revive their businesses, thus the birth of the ReSTART program.
ReSTART was launched only in the Philippines to target Filipino microretailers hit hard by the pandemic, but it stems from Coca-Cola’s global commitment to empower more entrepreneurs through training, education, and access to resources.
ReSTART included a bridge loan component as it was determined that access to capital has long been one of the biggest hindrances to growth that microretailers face and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since ReSTART was launched in July, 9,000 microretailers from across the Philippines have already benefited, on the way to meeting the full target of 15,000 microretailers. More than 200,000 Safe Stores posters were distributed to ensure that microretailers are eductated on the government-mandated safety guidleines for operating in the new normal.
De Lumen-Pernia said Coca-Cola rolled out the program tailored for microentrepreneurs in recognition of the role of the microenterprises such as sari-sari stores and carinderia owners play in sustaining the Philippine economy and its own business.
“They serve as the microengines of communities but they are also the key contributors to the Philippine’s economy as they represent 84.5 percent of the total MSMEs in the country. Aside from that, the company considers them as key members of the value chain as they help make the Coca-Cola products available to consumers,” she said.
Coca-Cola Philippines believes that by helping microretailers recover from the devastation caused by COVID-19, it helps empower the nation’s recovery, too.