Shawarma Shack

Last updated
The Shawarma Shack
The Shawarma Shack logo.png
Product type Shawarma wraps outlet chain
OwnerWalther Uzi Buenavista
Patricia Collantes
Country Philippines
Introduced2015;9 years ago (2015)
Website https://www.shawarmashack.ph/

The Shawarma Shack is a Philippine food franchise known for its "buy one, get one free" shawarma wraps. It started on February 21, 2015, as a nightly ambulant food stand in Divisoria, Manila operated by Walther Uzi Buenavista and Patricia Collantes. [1] As of 2024, it has over 800 outlets and 1000 employees throughout the Philippines. [1] [2]

Contents

History

In 2015, 25-year old Walther Uzi Buenavista and his wife Patricia launched a food stand at the Tutuban Center night market in Manila selling shawarma wraps. [3] Walther would make the pita bread while Patricia would help prepare the ingredients and recipe. The business was initially unsuccessful as daily sales were very low. The couple then decided to gradually close down the stand. In order to clear out the inventory, Walther offered a "buy one, get one free" promotion for his wraps. This proved successful for the business and for the first time, their average daily sales went up. [1] [4]

As the business grew, the couple incorporated the promotion as an integral part of their marketing strategy. One of their first expansions was an open air store in SM City North EDSA which they applied for and subsequently rejected 12 times. Most tenants in the area were short-lived except for the Shawarma Shack outlet which became a top seller, impressing the leasing management. [1]

In October 2016, its first store outside Metro Manila was launched at SM City Dasmariñas in Cavite. Its first store in the Visayas was launched in May 2018 at Elizabeth Mall Cebu while its store in Zamboanga City opened in August 2018 was its first in Mindanao. [5] Currently, the business' products are manufactured from a food facility in Quezon City. [4] [6]

The business contracts Daniel Padilla and Kathryn Bernardo as their brand endorsers. [7]

Products

The franchise specializes in offering a range of beef and chicken shawarma, available in both spicy and non-spicy variations, served in pita bread. In addition to shawarma, the menu features tikka and kebab wraps, as well as rice meals, catering to a variety of customer preferences.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pita</span> Yeast leavened flatbread baked from wheat flour

Pita or pitta is a family of yeast-leavened round flatbreads baked from wheat flour, common in the Mediterranean, Levant, and neighboring areas. It includes the widely known version with an interior pocket, also known as Arabic bread. In the United Kingdom, Greek bread is used for pocket versions such as the Greek pita, and are used for barbecues as a souvlaki wrap. The Western name pita may sometimes be used to refer to various other types of flatbreads that have different names in their local languages, such as numerous styles of Arab khubz (bread).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jollibee</span> Filipino fast food restaurant chain

Jollibee is a Filipino chain of fast food restaurants owned by Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) which serves as its flagship brand. Established in 1978 by Tony Tan Caktiong, it is the Philippines' top fast food restaurant and is among the world's fastest growing restaurants, expanding its international presence from 2014 to 2024 almost sixfold. As of January 2024, there were over 1,668 Jollibee fast-food branches across 17 countries, with restaurants in Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, North America, and Europe. Jollibee is best known for its bestselling item, the Chickenjoy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shawarma</span> Middle Eastern dish

Shawarma is a Middle Eastern dish that originated in the Levantine region during the Ottoman Empire, consisting of meat that is cut into thin slices, stacked in an inverted cone, and roasted on a slow-turning vertical spit. Traditionally made with lamb or mutton, it may also be made with chicken, turkey meat, beef, falafel or veal. The surface of the rotisserie meat is routinely shaved off once it cooks and is ready to be served. Shawarma is a popular street food throughout the Arab world and the Greater Middle East.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doner kebab</span> Meat dish

Doner kebab, also spelled as döner kebab, is a dish of Turkish origin made of meat cooked on a vertical rotisserie. Seasoned meat stacked in the shape of an inverted cone is turned slowly on the rotisserie, next to a vertical cooking element. The operator uses a knife to slice thin shavings from the outer layer of the meat as it cooks. The vertical rotisserie was invented in the 19th-century Ottoman Empire, and dishes such as the Arab shawarma, Greek gyros, Canadian donair, and Mexican al pastor are derived from this.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrap (food)</span> Culinary dish made with a soft flatbread around a filling

A wrap is a culinary dish made with a soft flatbread rolled around a filling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levantine cuisine</span> Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean

Levantine cuisine is the traditional cuisine of the Levant, in the sense of the rough area of former Ottoman Syria. The cuisine has similarities with Egyptian cuisine, North African cuisine and Ottoman cuisine. It is particularly known for its meze spreads of hot and cold dishes, most notably among them ful medames, hummus, tabbouleh and baba ghanoush, accompanied by bread.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SM Mall of Asia</span> Mall in the Philippines

SM Mall of Asia, is a large shopping mall in the Philippines, located at Bay City, Pasay, Philippines, within the SM Central Business Park, a reclaimed area within Manila Bay, and the southern end of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA/C-4).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Extreme Pita</span>

Extreme Pita is a Canadian-based fast-casual chain, owned by MTY Group. Headquartered in Richmond Hill, Ontario, the company has more than 175 units throughout Canada and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McArabia</span> Pita bread sandwich sold by McDonalds

The McArabia is a pita bread sandwich available at all McDonald's outlets in Arab countries and Pakistan. It is known as the Grilled Chicken foldover in Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa, as McOriental in Spain, France and Holland, the McTurco in Turkey, Greek Mac in Greece and Cyprus, and as the McKebab in Israel. The sandwich was originally made to meet West Asian tastes.

McDonald's Corporation is the world's largest chain of fast food restaurants, serving around 68 million customers daily in 119 countries. McDonald's traces its origins to a 1940 restaurant in San Bernardino, California, United States. After expanding within the United States, McDonald's became an international corporation in 1967, when it opened a location in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. By the end of the 1970s, McDonald's restaurants existed in five of the Earth's seven continents; an African location came in 1992 in Casablanca, Morocco.

Burger Machine is a Filipino chain of fast-food restaurants owned by the Burger Machine Holdings Corporation, a sub-company of the Philippine-based Gilmore Food Corporation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Regional street food</span>

Regional street food is street food that has commonalities within a region or culture.

Galleria Zamboanga, Inc. is a major retail company based in Zamboanga City, Philippines. The company took its name from the defunct shopping arcade where Southway Square presently stands. Their businesses include supermarket, retail, and food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samoon</span> Type of bread

Samoon is a type of yeast bread that is consumed mainly in Iraq. It is baked in traditional stone ovens. This bread is one of the most widespread breads in Iraq, along with khubz. It is usually served with a variety of foods such as hummus, kebab, and shawarma. It is one of the most popular breads used in Iraq and across the Levant and variants can be found in Syria and Lebanon. It can be also found in other Middle Eastern and European countries. A key differentiator in most samoon is the use of live-culture yogurt as a leavener. Otherwise, the process of making it is relatively similar to pita.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfamart</span> Indonesian convenience store chain

PT Sumber Alfaria Trijaya Tbk or Alfamart is a primarily-franchised Indonesian convenience store chain. As of June 2023, it has over 18,000 stores in 27 provinces spread across Indonesia, with 4 million daily customers and tens of thousands of micro, small and medium-scale business partners. Alfamart also has about 2,000 outlets in the Philippines as of September 2024. The business was started in December 1989 as a trading and distribution company in Jakarta by its president, Djoko Susanto. Ten years later, Susanto ventured into the convenience store category with Alfa Minimart, with their first branch being in Karawaci, Tangerang, Banten. Later renamed as Alfamart, the convenience store brand has since expanded to the Philippines, with its first Philippine branch located in Trece Martires, Cavite.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bo's Coffee</span> Filipino coffeehouse chain

Bo's Coffee is a Filipino coffee and coffeehouse chain. It was founded by Steve Benitez in 1996 in Cebu City, Philippines. The company operates a total of 91 outlets throughout the Philippines, with about 30 of them located in Metro Cebu, where it is based. Bo's Coffee sources coffee beans from farmers from Sagada, Mountain Province, Mount Kitanglad in Bukidnon, Mount Matutum in Tupi, South Cotabato, and Mount Apo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McDonald's Philippines</span> Philippines division of McDonalds

McDonald's Philippines, known locally and colloquially and shortened as McDo, is the master franchise of the multinational fast food chain McDonald's in the Philippines. The master franchise is held by the Golden Arches Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Alliance Global Group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pastil</span> Filipino packed rice dish

Pastil is a Filipino dish made with steamed rice wrapped in banana leaves with dry shredded beef, chicken, or fish. It originates from the Maguindanao people and is a popular, cheap breakfast meal in Mindanao, especially among Muslim Filipinos.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Ong, Henry (2019-11-04). "Success Lessons Every Startup Can Learn from the Founder of The Shawarma Shack". Financial Adviser. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  2. "Shawarma Shack Group cited by Chief PNP Eleazar for charitable works | BMPlus". BusinessMirror. 2021-10-12. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  3. "The origin of Shawarma Shack". My Puhunan. Nov 16, 2019. ABS-CBN.
  4. 1 2 "Walther Uzi Buenavista: Shawarma Shack's millennial CEO". INQUIRER.net. 2021-10-19. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  5. "Our Story - Shawarma Shack - The Philippine's First and Original Buy One Take One Shawarma". www.shawarmashack.ph. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  6. "Growth, digital innovation, employment drive Shawarma Shack forward". Manila Bulletin. October 21, 2021. Retrieved February 5, 2022.
  7. "Shawarma Shack renews endorsement contract of KathNiel". The Philippine Star. December 22, 2018.