Viet Mart Supplier Inc. Opens New Branch of VMART “Taste of Asia” in Sherwood Place, Taft Avenue Manila.

 

Wazzup Pilipinas!?

Viet Mart Supplier Inc. (Vmart.ph), an international-based growing start-up grocery business in the Philippines, establishes its second physical store in Sherwood Place in Taft Avenue, Manila in its initial expanding efforts.

When Jenny To, CEO of Vmart.ph, established the first store, currently located at 174 Yakal Street Makati City, its primary goal was to serve and bring Vietnamese products to its ex-pats living in Makati. Then, after a short period of business in the country, they have decided to integrate their business into the local scene.

“Our products originally and majorly are Vietnam products. We’re currently looking into the Vietnam market in the Philippines then start to expand to the local market here. We want to stretch to the local market now and try switching from Vietnam-centered market to the local,” said To.

Vmart.ph primarily has Vietnamese goods, but it also includes Korean, Thai, Chinese, and some Filipino products.

 Vmart.ph products vary from consumable goods to health and beauty products, mobile phone accessories, international fruits and vegetables, medical supplies, pet care products, meat and poultry, and various beverages.

 Vmart.ph also has a joint business with VMart which is Annam.ph, a Vietnamese mainstay restaurant, located beside the Makati branch.

“We want to bring the Vietnam products here in the Philippines, but we also brought with us Thai, Chinese, and Korean products to our store,” said To.

“When we first opened here, our first goal was to cater to Vietnamese ex-pats living in the Philippines,” explained To.

Vmart.ph’s second store was strategically established in Sherwood Place in Taft Manila to cater, not only to ex-pats living near Taft Avenue but also to target De La Salle University-Manila students, who they think has the greater interest in trying international products because of their “traveling tendencies.”

“When we opened in our second branch in Sherwood Place in Taft Manila, we wanted not to focus only on Vietnam ex-pats living around Taft but we are also targeting students from De La Salle University. We think that most of these students are there well-traveled,” said To.

“We know most of the students from LaSalle go on and about to different countries to we figured that they are the specific market that would appreciate and try out the products,” said To.

For 2021, Vmart plans to establish a total of three stores in the country’s capital region, also strategically choosing from either Quezon City, Clark Pampanga, Pasay, or Cavite.

“We are planning to put a maximum of three stores. Maybe one or two more for this year. We are looking into either Clark in Pampanga or Cavite. We are also searching either in Quezon City, Cavite, Pasay, or Pampanga but were still looking for the best spots to put up the stores,” said To.

VMart “Taste of Asia” is open 24 hours, seven days a week and delivers from 7:00 AM to 4:00 AM.

For additional information, please visit www.vmart.ph.

ePLDT launches first disaster recovery facility in Cebu

Wazzup Pilipinas!?

ePLDT, the ICT arm of PLDT Enterprise and the premier provider of holistic digital business solutions in the Philippines, recently launched its first disaster recovery (DR) facility in Cebu.

Housed in ePLDT’s VITRO Data Center Cebu 2—the biggest purpose-built data center facility outside Luzon—the disaster recovery facility will enable Cebu-based enterprises in developing their own Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and becoming compliant with global standards. It benefits from all the service level agreements (SLAs) available within the facility which includes physical resiliency and power redundancy—making it an ideal business continuity site for manpower relocation and a backup site for IT infrastructure in the event of a disaster.

A disaster recovery facility serves as a data backup site or alternative office space which companies can use to recover and restore its IT systems or operations in the event of a failure or natural disaster. The site is a crucial component of any company’s Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and part of standards on operational risk management. Highly regulated industries such as banking & financial institutions are required to abide by a clear and complete BCP to keep its services running no matter the circumstance. This is especially true given crucial role of the BFSI industry in the country’s economy and the daily lives of Filipinos.

Jovy Hernandez, ePLDT President & CEO and SVP & Head for PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups, says that “the Cebu DR facility is part of ePLDT’s initiatives to fortify businesses’ BCPs as we continue to face disasters and disruptions. We believe that disaster recovery is key to strengthen the resiliency of businesses.”

The disaster recovery facility will have 100 DR seats available for enterprises. With an area of roughly 250 sqm and has a shared conference room, the VITRO Cebu 2 facility offers both dedicated or shared seats options.

Nico Alcoseba, VP & Head of ICT Business for PLDT Enterprise, mentions that “with the mission of becoming the top-of-mind back-up facility for enterprises, Cebu’s DR facility is also assured of being seismic zone-4 compliant, which means it is able to withstand strong earthquakes, and with 12 layers of security, businesses are assured of its safety and security.”

These features ensure the operational continuity of businesses in the event of power failures, which is further backed by ePLDT’s 24/7 security and customer support. The facility is designed to minimize vibrations on the building where the servers are co-located, therefore ensuring optimum protection of the customer’s equipment.

VITRO Cebu 2 is one of the first three data centers in the Philippines to receive the ANSI/TIA-942 Rated 3 Facilities Certification and is also recognized by NTT Communications as a Nexcenter-accredited facility, complying with the global design standards of the world’s most competitive data centers.

In 2019, ePLDT inaugurated the largest DR site in the North, the first stand-alone DR with the VITRO Clark DR Site, to service Philippine enterprises. Strategically located beside the VITRO Clark Data Center, the site is the country’s largest facility to date, boasting of an expansive 6909 sqm floor area.



For more information on ePLDT, go to epldt.com. #

Rak of Aegis goes online

Wazzup Pilipinas!?

A treat for theater fans and OPM lovers! Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) together with Organisasyon ng Pilipinong Mang–Aawit (OPM) and The Philpop Musicfest Foundation (Philpop) are proudly presenting the pay-per-view streaming of the jukebox musical Rak of Aegis on 31 July, August 1, 7, 8, 2021 via www.ticket2me.net.

Rak of Aegis Online is the banner project of PETA’s fundraising campaign dubbed as #TakePETAbeyondCOVID, and a part of the Linggo ng Musikang Pilipino (LMP) 2021 celebration.

Featuring songs from the popular 90’s band Aegis, the jukebox musical tells the story of impoverished community Barangay Venezia, which has been submerged in floodwater for two months.

Since 2014, Rak of Aegis has captured the hearts of audiences with its humor, music, message of resiliency, family, and community. Now, finally, Villa Venezia and its well-loved residents will grace the screens, with a newfound relevance to the show’s message.

This streaming of Rak is a testament that the resilience of those in Villa Venezia exists not only in the play, but also in the Filipinos trying to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic, and in the artists who have strived to thrive and survive despite the crisis currently faced by the local theater industry.

Tickets for Rak of Aegis Online will be available online by May 2021.

The streaming cast as well as further ticketing details will be announced soon.

Stay tuned for more information. Follow PETA’s social media pages: Facebook www.facebook.com/petatheater; Instagram @petatheater; Twitter @petatheater; YouTube www.youtube.com/petatheateronline.