Eunice Rey-Montesa returned to her hometown of Boac, Marinduque to carry on her grandmother’s baking legacy. Ricardo Magnayon Jr., a retired rubber farmer in Sarangani, turned to cacao to help his community bounce back. Though they come from opposite ends of the country, both found the same lifeline in e-commerce—bringing their local products to customers nationwide.
Marinduque kitchen
Rey’s Bakeshop traces its beginnings to 1987, when Josefa Rodil, a retired home economics teacher, began making uraro cookies using arrowroot flour sourced from farmers in Marinduque. For years, the business remained local, quietly building a following based on consistency, quality, and familiarity.
When Josefa passed the business down to her daughter Felisa, and eventually to her granddaughter Eunice, the bakery still had no digital presence—just the strength of a family recipe and a loyal local base.
But in 2017, Eunice left her job overseas to help carry the legacy forward. “I came home knowing the bakery had potential, but we didn’t know how to scale beyond the island,” she said.
New start in Sarangani
Thousands of kilometers away in Mindanao, Magnayon was facing a different kind of turning point. He had planned to retire into rubber farming, but when market prices collapsed, he switched to cacao – more resilient, more sustainable and, in his words, “more hopeful.”
His decision was not merely about personal recovery. It was about building something other farmers could benefit from, too. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, he launched Don Ricardo Chocolate Shop, producing tablea and chocolate bars made from locally grown cacao.
With restrictions in place and mobility limited, the business sold what it could through Facebook, mostly within General Santos.
“The vision was bigger than that. But we couldn’t go beyond the city at first,” said Princess, the owner’s daughter who helps run the business.
Pivot to digital
For both Rey’s Bakeshop and Don Ricardo Chocolate Shop, the pandemic forced a shift from survival mode to reinvention. Sales had slowed dramatically. Access to customers was limited. But through the Department of Trade and Industry’s (DTI) E-Commerce Program, both businesses were introduced to Shopee.
At first, it was unfamiliar ground – learning how to list products, manage orders, and navigate logistics. But the shift paid off quickly.
“Once we joined Shopee, we started getting orders from places we never imagined. Cavite, Metro Manila, Laguna. Suddenly, the product that had only ever been sold in Marinduque was reaching Luzon households,” Eunice said.
Don Ricardo Chocolate saw a similar breakthrough since the shift to e-commerce gave the brand visibility it hadn’t previously enjoyed, allowing customers from across the country to discover their products without the team ever leaving Sarangani.
Many of those early buyers have since become repeat customers, helping to build a loyal base far beyond their home province.
Scaling with intention
E-commerce did more than help both businesses stay afloat – it gave them room to grow.
Rey’s Bakeshop is now expanding distribution throughout Luzon and working toward FDA-LTO certification to ensure product safety and compliance.
They’ve improved packaging and are slowly building the capacity to meet rising demand, while continuing to source arrowroot from local suppliers and employ women in their community.
Don Ricardo Chocolate, meanwhile, has opened a café at SM City General Santos to establish a local presence and is preparing to open a branch in Quezon City.
The brand now serves customers in over 30 provinces and is developing new product lines, including flavored chocolates and curated gift sets.
Staying grounded
Even as their businesses grow, both entrepreneurs remain firmly grounded in the communities that shaped them. If anything, it’s reinforced their connection to where they started.
Rey’s Bakeshop remains a family-run operation. The cookies are still made in small batches. The community is still central to its identity.
Don Ricardo continues to work directly with smallholder farmers, offering training in post-harvest practices and quality control to help raise income and standards in the local cacao supply chain.
These two businesses didn’t have the same origin or trajectory. But they were shaped by similar forces: the pressure to adapt, the need to modernize, and the opportunity to reach farther than ever before through digital platforms.
While, they started with tradition and resilience, e-commerce helped carry them the rest of the way.
