Gen Xers and early millennials may remember Minute Burger as a quaint homegrown fast food brand in the 90s. It grew to have a few brick-and-mortar stores during that decade. Late into the 2010s, Minute Burger has become an Internet hero and is especially known to Gen Z because of its “Meme Lord” status.
Naturally, the memes were just part of what gave Minute Burger its fame in the age of the Internet. Even before they became social media darlings, Minute Burger has been relevant due to a combination of having a good value-for-money product and picking the right partners to grow with.
Minute Burger is owned by the Leslie Corporation, best known for being the makers of Clover Chips. It is one of the longest standing Buy 1, Take 1 burger brands in the market and has been operating since 1982. Throughout its history, it has been keen on being more accessible to its market, and it found that partnering with the first and only Super Minimart in the Philippines was a good way to achieve that.
Alfamart Philippines first caught Minute Burger’s attention in 2018, as the Super Minimart had been aggressively expanding through the CALABARZON via partner tie-ups. Minute Burger Site Development Manager Ricardo Santos saw an opportunity and started a partnership with Alfamart to make location hunting easier for their franchisees. “Part of our strategy is to provide local opportunities for franchisees,” he said. “Minute Burgers [franchise] guidelines and procedures are easy to follow and especially adaptable to the needs of the franchisee and the lessors like Alfamart,” he added.
The business model of Alfamart Philippines hinges on cultivating strong partnerships, and this has been a driving force for the company since they started operations in 2014. “Partnerships have always been one of the key factors to our growth,” said Alfamart Philippines COO Harvey Ong. “By working with partners who are just as passionate as we are in giving value to the communities we serve, we were able to open more than a thousand stores in just six years,” Ong continued.
Ong further explained that partnerships with Alfamart are more than just an exchange of services or goods. “It’s an exchange of ideas and concepts on how we can give the best service to our customers and their respective communities. In the case of Minute Burger, we took lessons from them when it came to adapting to their market’s needs, while we gave them a few pointers on their logistics,” Ong explained. “This sort of collaborative ecosystem, where all the partners add something to each other, ensures constant improvement, which results in better ways to serve customers. Everybody wins.” Ong concluded.
Currently Minute Burger has over 600 branches nationwide; all franchise-owned. Four of those are in Alfamart stores, each in Sumulong, Marikina; Mayondon, Laguna; Tanza Cavite; and Maragondon, Cavite. “Our partnership with Alfamart has allowed us to channel opportunities, and strengthen our position, enabling us to tap the residential market,” Santos said.