MBA MEAT SHOP offers lessons on resilience

The growing staff of MBA led by Mari Sabaña Uy are ready to take MBA to greater heights. —CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Borongan City, Eastern Samar—The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the small businesses in this capital town’s city market has been severe. Many have shut down and some may never reopen.

But not the MBA meat shop and grocery store.

While other small businesses that managed to stay in business had to reduce their workforce, MBA—which simply stands for Manok, Baboy At marami pang iba—was able to do the opposite. It has hired 15 more employees—mostly working students—to complement the staff members it already had to manage the sales that rose despite the devastating pandemic.

“We are just lucky that the food industry is considered essential. Otherwise, we would have also closed shop,” said Marina Sabaña Uy, owner of MBA.

Before COVID-19 struck the country in March of last year, Uy said she would pick up 30 boxes of groceries every week from the regional center of Tacloban City for reselling in the city. Since then, her purchases have increased to around 100 boxes a week as the lockdowns have made it more difficult for the locals to venture out themselves. Also, demand rose for essentials such as processed meat and cooking ingredients. Her shop sells pork from an average of 40 pig carcasses every month, with each carcass producing 40 kilograms of meat. Chicken sales have remained constant at 100 crates—25 kilograms each—every two days. She won the loyalty of her customers because of the quality of her produce and her knowledge of the business. “Aside from being generous and humble, Ate Mari may be even overqualified to run this business,” shared Borongan Pilot Elementary School teacher Mary Jane Gapud.

Mari and her husband, Bernard, both accountants, have years of experience in retail.

They started in 2004 with the first franchise in Eastern Samar of Monterey, which they kept until 2012. At their peak, they had three retail outlets in Eastern Samar and one in Tacloban until Supertyphoon “Yolanda” hit the region in 2013. MBA has survived and is poised for further growth. For Marina and Bernard, their motivation is not just profit.

“My primordial motivation for business is to empower people, especially the needy and to establish relationships. Profit is only secondary,” Uy said.