Category Archives: News Room

Doing brisk business on Valentine’s Day

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This article was written by Jason Domantay and was published on Yahoo! Southeast Asia.

More than couples, there’s another group of people who are feeling all the love this Valentine’s Day and they are the entrepreneurs.

Many businessmen work around the occasion, which is not even a holiday, just to lure more customers and accommodate all the requests for the day.

Mandarin hotel’s E-commerce and PR manager Erika Aquino said that they don’t have as many guests “normal days.” She adds that the hotel’s occupancy reaches to 75 percent during weekends.

However, it’s a different story come Valentine’s Day because all their rooms get booked. “On Valentine’s Day, hotel-wise it’s even more popular than the Christmas season,” Aquino revealed.

To spice up the occasion, their hotel offers room packages complete with expensive champagne bottles, chocolates and even massages and hair cuts.

Also doing brisk business this Valentine’s Day is the restaurant industry. As we all know, a lot of couples like mark the day with an intimate meal.

Caron Santiago-Macasaet of Melo’s Restaurant says that during Valentine’s Day, more than one hundred guests dine in every branch. She added that favorite requests of the diners are the steaks as well as Rockefeller Oysters.

“We make sure our stocks are complete (and) we do a lot of advertising for Valentine’s Day,” she said.

Of course, there is no Valentine’s Day without giving away flowers to the ladies. Dustin Andaya of Philippine Cut Flower Corporation, who runs Island Rose, shared that their sales tend to increase more than 150 percent from their regular days. Continue reading →

Everybody loves roses

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This article was written by Joy Angelica Subido and was published in The Philippine Star.

Say it with the language of roses. Red roses are an expression of love or passion, yellow roses signify friendship, orange roses are for passion or energy, and white roses are a symbol of purity. Enthusiasm for the flower continues to grow, so that new hybrids or variants are constantly being developed for introduction to an appreciative market.

At Island Rose, the Philippines’ premier grower of quality roses, we were introduced to a variety called Cool Water. Licensed by Zino Davidoff and named after his company’s popular perfume, the lavender rose is a Dutch creation. Lavender-hued roses are widely believed to convey enchantment, and are the flowers of choice to send to express love at first sight. Thus, Cool water roses should be the choice of romantics who are not quite sure that they want to commit too early in a relationships by giving wildly passionate red roses to the objects of their amorous interests.

“Roses have all the beauty and meaning to express a range of human emotions, ideas or thoughts,” agrees Dustin Andaya, chief executive officer of Island Rose. Continue reading →

Island Rose CEO discusses IT Outsourcing on Computerworld

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Outsourcing IT services gives various companies flexibility on hiring manpower for certain IT projects depending on the specialized skills required. Dustin Andaya, CEO and Marketing Director of Island Rose, shared his insights on IT outsourcing as he joined four other IT executives in the country in discussing the matter for the month’s CIO  Roundtable with Computerworld Philippines. This article was written for Computerworld Philippines.

IT outsourcing  has been growing steady ground over the past years, especially that IT organizations are always on the lookout for cheaper – but not less efficient – ways of going about with their work.

With IT outsourcing, firms are given the opportunity to tap specialized skill  sets without the need to train manpower, who will potentially transfer to other, higher-paying jobs in the long run, expensive training and skills in tow.

Outsourcing various parts of IT also helps firms innovate, because they are given the chance to focus more on their core competencies, and less on “keeping the lights on” for IT. Continue reading →

The blossoming of Island Rose

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This article was written by Lou Marquez-Hernandez for The Daily Tribune.

They’re lovely to look at, delicate and sweet-smelling. They can make you smile, especially if you’re a woman,  or can do the talking for you, if you’re a man. They convey words you cannot say, make the gloomiest of places appear cheerful and even symbolize all that is perfect and pure, Mother Mary.

If there is anything that is both the symbol of fragility and strength, it is the rose. Its petals, which are easily crushed and crumpled, have the most delicate scent, yet try to pluck a bloom of its bush and the thorns will make even a grown man wince. You need shears to harvest it, yet its gentleness in touch to keep it beautiful.

“Roses have all the beauty and meaning to express a range of human emotion, idea or thought,” says Dustin Andaya [Chief Executive Officer] of Island Rose. “More commonly we know that red roses signify love and passion, but there are also yellow roses which celebrate friendship and joy.” Continue reading →

Roses are red, but some come in other colors too

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This article was written by Kenneth M. del Rosario and published in Philippine Daily Inquirer.

What lady has not dreamed of receiving a bouquet of roses from her romantic partner?

Never mind that Valentine’s Day isn’t months away, Juliet doesn’t need a special occasion to expect flowers from Romeo (though nowadays it’s not uncommon to find it the other way around).

Though roses can be seen in flower shops around the country all year round, it is unbeknownst to many that these symbols of love is being planted and grown locally – in the relatively cooler city of Tagaytay.

“Roses have all the beauty and meaning to express a range of human emotion, idea or thought”, said Island Rose chief executive officer Dustin Andaya. Island Rose is the country’s largest grower and wholesaler of roses, specializing in growing world European roses. Continue reading →

IslandRose.net eyes regional growth

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This article was written by Riza Olchondra and published in Philippine Daily Inquirer.

ISLANDROSE.NET, the largest wholesaler and retailer of roses in the Philippines, aims to grow roots outside the Philippines to sustain growth, founder and marketing director Dustin Andaya said in an interview.

“We want to go regional. We launched a beta site in Hong Kong last year. It’s a strategic market especially since we’re just testing,” Andaya said Saturday on the sidelines of the Click! Technopreneurs’ Summit in SM Mall of Asia.

About nine years since launching the online business to drive growth for Philippine Cut Flower Corp., the Andaya family’s farm established in 1983, Andaya said that he sees the Philippines’ neighbors as the next frontier.

“When we started, overseas Filipino workers were our top customers and now locals are out-pacing foreign-based Pinoys in terms of orders. The next challenge for us is going regional,” he said. Continue reading →