BIZ BUZZ: The return of Movenpick Mactan
After an extended hiatus caused by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic and Typhoon “Odette” (interna tional name: Rai) that hit Cebu in December 2021, Movenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu is reopening its doors today.
An initial inventory of 85 refreshed rooms and suites will be available during the soft opening and the plan is to work the way up to having all the rooms available over the next year or so.
Night owls and party goers will also be happy to know that the much-missed Ibiza that was hit hard by Odette is also slated to reopen in time for the Christmas rush this year.
The renovation and refurbishment of Movenpick Hotel Mactan Island Cebu that suspended operations on Aug. 31, 2020, is expected to come up to a cool P550 million.
Raising the funds is quite a challenge but the group led by respected local business leader Manny Osmeña that is bankrolling its rebirth is confident that the considerable investment will eventually pay off, especially as the appetite for revenge travel shows no signs of weakening anytime soon.
— Tina Arceo-Dumlao
Cold Sapporo, hot business
The municipality of Murcia in Negros Occidental has just welcomed one of its biggest investments to date: the P350-million state-of-the-art Sapporo cold storage facility and ice plant of Czark Mak Corporation (CZM) Group of Companies.
The investment includes those for the solar power, real estate and planned dry warehouses.
CZM may not be a household name yet, but its businesses all over the country include real estate, manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, agribusiness, food and hospitality, and technology, even as it continues to explore new business opportunities and to expand its current customer reach.
Biz Buzz learned that the construction of the cold storage facility is expected to be completed this month, with start of commercial operations scheduled for the third week of July.
It will have a capacity of 1,728 pallet positions, with five frozen rooms, two chiller rooms and two blast freezing rooms.
The facility has been approved by the Board of Investment for nonpioneer status registration. Sapporo provides both cold storage solutions for blasting and freezing, and it also has chillers for agricultural products not required to be stored below freezing temperature
It will serve the needs of agricultural and other producers in Murcia, as well as Bacolod, Bago, Talisay, Silay, Don Salvador Benedicto, among others.
CZM currently operates a cold storage facility and ice plant in Guiguinto, Bulacan, through its unit Acro Ice as well as an ice plant and soon cold storage in Batangas under another unit, The Service Warehouse.
CZM chair and president Caesar Wongchuking explained that they have always identified Negros as one of their preferred areas of investment for the company’s cold chain portfolio since the region is heavy in agriculture and identified by the current administration as one of the country’s key growth areas.
