51 years and still crackling for Iloilo’s Biscocho Haus

At any airport in the Philippines, you’ll know immediately that a plane has just arrived from Iloilo City when you see the white boxes bearing the distinctive Biscocho Haus brand on the baggage claim conveyor belt.

Indeed, travel to the regional center of the Western Visayas region is not complete without bringing home classic pasalubong that the homegrown Ilonggo brand is known for, from merengue, yema, galletas, toasted mamon, butterscotch and the biscocho that founder Teresa Jalandoni Guadarrama developed and started selling in 1975 from the family compound in the Jaro district.

Biscocho Haus managing director Jose Gerardo Guadarrama tells the Inquirer that he grew up seeing his father, Carlos, hard at work as a doctor and his mom working full time at a bank, but always finding ways to earn extra income to help put food on the table for eight children.

His mother had sold ice candy and rice krispies on consignment to school canteens before hitting what would become the jackpot in biscocho, a Spanish delicacy meaning twice toasted or baked.

Biscocho immediately won a following as it was the perfect companion to a hot beverage like coffee or hot chocolate, similar to the biscotti of Italy.

She bought day-old bread from the bakeries, slathered on her own secret topping mostly made up of butter and sugar, then baked them to perfection. That balance of creamy, butter taste, sweetness and the crunch made Biscocho Haus’ biscocho an instant favorite.

As it immediately clicked with the market, she eventually forgot all about her other sidelines and concentrated on the biscocho that gave old bread new life.

She was still working full time in the bank but carved out time in the morning before going to mass and work, then again at lunch and after work at night to prepare the biscocho and other baked goods.

A family affair

In the beginning, it was a strictly family affair with the children and the household help tapped to assist, especially when the children went back to Iloilo City for the summer and semestral breaks.

“I had bread to slice and put toppings on,” says Guadarrama, a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of the Philippines Diliman.

As sales increased, the family’s confidence in the growth prospects of Biscocho Haus grew.

Thus, in 1983, Biscocho Haus became a full-fledged store.

For years, Biscocho Haus moved from strength to strength, immediately gaining an audience and the support of Ilonggos.

Tourists and locals would flock to their Jaro branch and come home with a sample of the products that had also expanded through the years.

These include the iconic banana marbles, which predate even the biscocho and were developed to make use of the saba that many patients gave their father for his medical services.

Guadarrama says his parents were the prime movers of Biscocho Haus, with some of his siblings working closely by their side.

But all was not smooth sailing for Biscocho Haus, even with the full support of the family.

It ran into financial and operational difficulties in the late 1990s to the early 2000s.

Their mother had been getting on in age, and the next generation was not as prepared as they would have liked to take Biscocho Haus to the next level.

Operating and financial systems were not as robust, and they also expanded further than they should have. In essence, they were superior on the creative side of the business, but so much on the financial.

Guadarrama was eventually tapped to help turn things around.

Era of professionalization

Guadarrama, the sixth of the eight children, was deemed the best equipped to do so since he had built a career in the United States helping distressed companies get back in the black.

If he could do it for other companies, why not for the family business that helped put them all through school and has also become a hallmark of Iloilo?

Driven by the need to do his part for the family, Guadarrama came back home in 2002 from the United States, where he had moved in 1984, and immediately embarked on an aggressive financial housekeeping.

Debts were restructured, and systems were put in place that everyone, even the family members, had to agree to.

It was a difficult process for everyone, but one that had to be made to save Biscocho Haus.

Providing impetus is the opening of the SM and Robinsons malls in 2003, which gave Biscocho Haus greater visibility and improved access to their products since it became more convenient for travelers to buy their products when they don’t have time to travel all the way to their original branch.

Eventually, with loans paid on time and more finances freed up, they were able to branch out not just in Iloilo City but in other parts of Panay and Negros Islands.

Business icon

Now they have 23 branches, of which 15 are in Iloilo, with the rest in Capiz, Negros Occidental, Aklan and Antique.

His role in turning around Biscocho Haus has been recognized with Guadarrama being named one of the 35 Business Icons in the Visayas by the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a Most Inspiring Ilonggo Entrepreneur by Go Negosyo.

For Guadarrama, Biscocho Haus will not stray too far from its roots, even if there have been offers from many quarters to bring the brand closer to the Metro Manila market.

“I just limit myself to being here in the Ilonggo-speaking region,” says Guadarrama, explaining that Biscocho Haus will lose its novelty if it expands too far from Iloilo, although Biscocho Haus is available online.

Aside from fixing the backend of Biscocho Haus, he also made it a point to reach out to the tourism industry to establish closer ties, in keeping with his mother’s belief that Biscocho Haus is more than just about baked goods, but also about tourism. Thus, Biscocho Haus became a part of important city and province events, including the famous Dinagyang Festival that draws thousands to the city.

True to core values

But while he has embraced change, the values have remained the same.

That means that Biscocho Haus will not scrimp on quality, which made Biscocho Haus a byword in pasalubong shopping, even if other brands have also sought to copy and take away part of its sales.

“We do not sacrifice. Whatever was used in the beginning by my mother, we still use today. There are no substitutes. The butter is the same, the sugar and flour, although we have of course become a bit more streamlined, for consistency, efficiency and speed of production,” he says.

Guiding them is the principle that high-quality products have to be affordable to the masses. That is the Ilonggo mentality, he says, value for money.

This is why even if the cost of raw materials had gone up materially, especially this year with the Middle East war, it continues to find ways to keep prices down.

“The last time we increased was in December 2024. We held back on increasing in 2025 and we want to make do with another year without adjusting,” says Guadarrama.

But as it strives to hold off on any price adjustments, Biscocho Haus has no plans on slowing down on its efforts to keep its place as a pride of Iloilo.

Guadarrama, who is turning 68 in November this year, is also spending a good portion of his time fortifying the systems behind Biscocho Haus so that it will be ready for transition to the next generation, who will hopefully carry the family tradition for many more years to come. INQ