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‘Keeping the business sustainable’
Herman’s Modern Bakery’s assistant general manager and operations manager Michael Robert Guerrero oversees the renovations currently going on to expand the Tun Marikita’s Cafe along Airport Road. (BEA CABRERA)
For a business that has been running for 75 years, Herman’s Modern Bakery is potent proof that ensuring a company’s sustainability depends in large part on focusing on a vision and creating a business strategy that stimulates growth.
Change is also driven by growth and is inevitable in order for the business to be effective, according to Michael Robert Guerrero, Herman’s Modern Bakery assistant general manager and operations manager.
“For the next 50 years, I hope to be around [and] I hope to be successful in running the business by meeting the needs of our customers,” he said.
One of the major plans that is currently being executed is the renovation and expansion of the Tan Marikita Café on Tun Herman Pan Road (formerly Airport Road)
The current café used to sit 35 people. …With the expansion, we are doubling that capacity and café hours,” he said.
“It really gets busy here on the weekends, especially during breakfast and lunch, and we want to accommodate as many people as we can and make them feel comfortable,” he added.
Modernizing the bakery’s equipment is also one of the goals to improve operational efficiency.
Reorienting the playing field to suit Herman’s Modern Bakery’s strengths is on the table, with plans of opening a branch/bakery in Guam. “Putting up a branch, a physical location in Guam is one of the goals I want to accomplish while I am here. It makes economic sense to have that,” Michael Guerrero said.
This was echoed by Herman’s Modern Bakery CEO Herman T. Guerrero. “We are working on Herman’s plan to open another bakery in Guam,” he said.
“At one time, we had a distribution center [in Guam that was] providing bread for people and the U.S. military base but it was hard as people were expecting fresh bread and, that time, we didn’t have a bakery in Guam. We shipped the bread, which became expensive.
“So we said, ‘Perhaps, this was not the time yet but keep looking on how we can make it happen in Guam’ and I know it is possible,” he added.
