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Tatler Asia's Most Influential 2022 honouree Ana Lorenzana de Ocampo shares what's behind the successful establishment in the food and beverage industry
Ana Lorenzana de Ocampo was born into a family of food lovers and entrepreneurs. At a young age, she was already involved in the business by helping out at her grandmother's bakery which piqued her own fondness for pastries and bread. At a later age, De Ocampo then started selling cakes and cookies. Her fervent passion for food and the business burned brighter when she took up Hotel and Restaurant Administration at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Before she became the president of the esteemed Wild Flour Bakery + Café Corp, De Ocampo earned a Le Grande Diplome culinary arts degree at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu in London as she further mastered her craft.
Read more: Her World: Ana de Ocampo
In this bit, De Ocampo opens up to Tatler about her journey as a renowned trailblazing restaurateur in the culinary scene for more than 10 years.
What projects in the last two years are you most proud of? Why?
Ana de Ocampo (ADO): Despite everything, Wildflour accomplished much during and despite the pandemic, which I'm incredibly proud of. Amidst stringent limits on restaurants especially with dine-in being totally restricted for significant portions of 2020 and 2021, every move could have made or broken the company and what the team had worked so hard to build.
Instead of being paralysed by fear, we acted, and Wildflour—being primarily a sit-down restaurant business—needed to learn to venture out of its comfort zone and meet customers where they were. This manifested by our team developing our very own Wildflour To-Go in-house delivery arm despite delivery only being a minor portion of the business pre-pandemic, and this allowed us to continue operating unfettered despite the aforementioned limitation of movements.
See also: Wildflour Italian Invites You to Experience the Freshest and Finest Finds
Additionally, we also launched several other sub-brands centred around out-of-store and digital brands to cater to the stay-at-home market including the Wildflour Pantry line of packaged products, cloud kitchen brands such as Wildflour Pizza, Wildflour Rotisserie Chicken and Wings, Wildflour Burger, Wildflour Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Meals, and Wildflour Bakes.
My team and I were huge advocates of taking these necessary risks despite having minimal to no prior experience, from pushing to expand the team to enhance customer service and e-commerce platforms, investing in packaging to allow food to travel well, and strengthening ties with delivery partners.
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What challenges do you see now in your respective industry? How do you intend to help address these challenges?
ADO: As dine-in has come back in a big way due to the 'revenge' spending phenomenon with the easing of pandemic measures and sentiment throughout 2022, a major struggle of new and old F&B businesses was transitioning to the 'new normal' and maintaining their foothold in delivery despite the immense effort and innovations that they had enacted throughout and in response to the pandemic.
While the influx of experiential diners is definitely evident as of late, there is still a good chunk of the population that chooses to stay at home—especially those that remain in work-from-home setups and those that continue to be afflicted by the waves of surges of COVID strains. Thus, it remains a major challenge for everyone in our industry to hit all touch points where consumers are, and we address this at Wildflour by not only maintaining but growing every aspect of the business.
In case you missed it: Abba Napa and Ana De Ocampo Talk About Running F&B Operations During Quarantine in Metro Manila
We are sustaining our already strong dine-in businesses by constantly improving the dining experience through continuous in-house training programmes for new and old employees, introducing new menu items, and organizing events both in-house and those of the private and corporate nature, including our trademark weekly Retro Night event series.
On the out-of-store sales side, we have been investing in building our Wildflour To-Go team, making the payment and ordering processes more convenient and seamless, and exploring going into third-party retail to expand the distribution network of our Pantry products. With all of these moving parts and areas for growth, the company's sales levels have returned in full force and at times record highs and exceeding targets, and this is due in large part to our ceaseless effort to marry the core din-in business with delivery.
Related: Flours Grown Wild
Also, with the global supply chain issues and inflation which are greatly affected all industries, chief of which being Food & Beverage given its reliance on multiple local and imported products that are highly perishable and sensitive to price fluctuations, all restaurant businesses have had to make difficult decisions to persist despite this all-encompassing issue. Wildflour has done all it can to mitigate this by maintaining strong ties with its suppliers through proper payment scheduling to secure priority delivery status, while also keeping alternatives at the ready if suppliers have difficulty meeting demand. Fast-paced menu engineering and the ability to shift to making certain items totally ourselves (such as shifting back to making our own French fries, which was the arrangement when Wildflour was smaller, while potato supply has been inconsistent) has helped in keeping costs and quality control manageable despite the difficulties, and ensuring that stock-outs are minimized where possible.
Who do you look up to for guidance, inspiration or mentorship?
ADO: My late-but-great father remains an enduring influence to this day. He may have passed last year, but he’s left me with troves of wisdom, especially when it comes to running a business, taking risks, and allowing your business to evolve with the times. My dad also taught me to see the world. To him, each new destination freshens your perspective and encourages you to notice something you might have overlooked in your own day-to-day that will spark inspiration once more.
Alongside the confidence my dad instilled, God has also always been there to light the way and nudge me toward the right path. I tread each step with grace and gratitude—grateful for the life God has given me, the purpose He has equipped me with, and the family He has blessed me with.
Also read: #ChefsTable: With Ana De Ocampo
Lastly, I’m inspired every day by my team, including Allen, BJ, Jao, and each and every dedicated member of our organization that puts in the hard work day in and day out to make Wildflour at its best and continue to grow further. Seeing them inspired inspires me to lead and give my all to this business, and if it weren’t for them, none of this—the growth, the success, the accolades—would even be possible, as they are the ones making it all happen.
What can you say to those who'd like to follow in your footsteps?
ADO: Work to me has always been personal. The seeds for Wildflour were planted ever since I was a little girl shadowing my Grandma Amelia at her bakery in the province, as well as watching my mom run her business.
Since then, food became a passion, and passion leads you to persevere through long work hours, new challenges, and decades of doing the same thing over and over.
To anyone who aims to run a restaurant, the idea of seeing people enjoy your food shouldn’t be your primary motivation—that’s simply the cherry on top. You should be motivated by every single step that gets your food on a plate and on the tables of people. When work becomes personal to you—that the daily smell of bread baked properly, or the trials of testing a new pastry still elicit a thrill—then it won’t simply be a job that you have, but a lifelong, fruitful journey. That’s what Wildflour has been to me over the past decade, and hopefully for more decades hence, and I sincerely hope that anybody that chooses to lead this type of life ends up having the same zeal and joy that my business has given me.
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What are your plans for the coming years? What keeps you going?
ADO: Wildflour has grown like wildfire in so many unimaginable ways in its first 10 years, so the coming 10 will be about staying the course—we actually already have our expansion pipeline set for the subsequent months (with other new options and business ventures constantly being explored and considered), and I intend to remain as involved and hands-on with the business' growth as I can be to see it through. Now that we've hurdled the nastiest parts of the pandemic, we’re only more enthusiastic about enriching the experience of dining out at our restaurants.
Aside from my love for my family, and for this company and team that I've spent the past decade working to build and grow, I, same as everyone, am just grateful to be able to sit down in a dining room, catch up with friends, and enjoy a meal without paranoia creeping in after having gone through so much these past couple of years. I myself plan to do just that for as long as I possibly can.
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Photography: Javier Gamboa
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Kristina's passion to write came from her love for books. If her nose isn't buried in one nor her fingers are tapping away on a keyboard working on a write-up, you'll find her having a feast at a new restaurant or savouring coffee in the nearest shop listening to rock music. Also interested in computer games and all things Japan, she spends her free time playing Dota 2, watching anime, as well as reading manga.
