Six Filipino brands making their global moves

From Singapore to Spain and Mexico, homegrown businesses are expanding their reach overseas.

For years, the Filipino brands most associated with international expansion were familiar names such as Jollibee, Goldilocks, Max’s, and Bench. These companies have built substantial overseas operations, introducing Filipino food, fashion, and retail to customers in different markets.

Now, other homegrown businesses are making their own international moves. From an affordable perfume label opening stores in Singapore to a Filipino shawarma chain testing its business model overseas, these brands are taking their chances abroad while continuing to build their operations at home.

Their approaches vary. Some are entering their first foreign markets, others are adding locations overseas, and one has already built a sizable coffee business in Mexico.

While their businesses and strategies differ, these homegrown brands share a willingness to pursue customers beyond the Philippines while continuing to develop their brands.

Together, they offer a glimpse of how Filipino businesses are pursuing growth beyond the domestic market.

Ian Darcy

Filipino fragrance brand Ian Darcy opened its first overseas store at Lucky Plaza in Singapore in April 2025, bringing its affordable perfumes to a market beyond the Philippines. The launch marked a milestone for the homegrown business, which grew from selling fragrances at local bazaars.

The company has since opened two more Singapore locations, at Lot One Mall in March 2026 and Junction 8 Mall in June. Its third location uses a kiosk format, giving the brand another way to reach shoppers in the city-state.

Before expanding abroad, Ian Darcy had already built a network of 228 locations in the Philippines. Its Singapore operations are now helping the company learn how to sell to a wider customer base, including Singaporeans unfamiliar with the Filipino brand.

Hotel 101

Hotel101 opened its first overseas property in Madrid, Spain, on March 10, 2026. The 680-room hotel in the Valdebebas district marks the international debut of the homegrown hospitality brand developed by Philippine-listed DoubleDragon Corp.

The Madrid property is designed around Hotel101’s standardized room concept and includes amenities such as swimming pools, a gym, dining facilities and function rooms. Its opening puts the company’s hospitality model into operation in a major European market, serving both leisure and business travelers.

Hotel101 is a larger corporate expansion than most of the other brands in this carousel, with an international network as its long-term ambition. Its Madrid property also recorded more than 45,000 room-night bookings, equivalent to approximately €5.44 million in hotel revenue, after bookings opened in March, according to the company in April 2026.

JT’s Manukan Grille

JT’s Manukan Grille, the Filipino restaurant brand co-founded by veteran actor Joel Torre and his wife, Cristy Azcona-Torre, has taken its Bacolod-style chicken inasal overseas, bringing its menu of grilled chicken and Filipino comfort food to diners in Singapore and Dubai.

The brand opened its first international outlet at Singapore’s Lucky Plaza in June 2024 before entering Dubai in August 2025, with a restaurant at City Centre Deira. The Dubai opening extended the reach of a business that had already established more than 40 branches in the Philippines.

The brand has continued building its presence in the UAE, opening a second Dubai branch at Lulu Hypermarket in Al Barsha in September 2026. The latest location gives the restaurant another opportunity to serve Filipinos abroad while introducing its version of chicken inasal to a broader audience.

PickUp Coffee

PickUp Coffee entered Mexico on December 5, 2023, opening its first overseas store on Masaryk Avenue in Mexico City. While its international debut predates the other recent moves featured here, its subsequent growth makes it a useful example of what can happen after a Filipino brand establishes itself abroad. 

The company continued expanding across Mexico City, taking its accessible coffee concept into a market far removed from its Philippine origins. Rather than limiting its international presence to a single flagship location, it kept adding stores as the business developed.

By March 2026, PickUp Coffee was celebrating its 50th store in Mexico. The milestone makes it one of the clearest examples in this lineup of a Filipino business turning its first overseas move into a substantial international operation.

Shawarma Shack

Shawarma Shack took its affordable shawarma concept overseas in July 2025, opening its first international outlet in Toa Payoh, Singapore. The launch came 10 years after the business began as a night-market stall in Manila. 

By the time it entered Singapore, the chain had grown to more than 850 outlets in the Philippines. That local network gave the company an established business model to bring to a new market, where it could test whether its value-for-money offering would appeal to customers beyond its home base.

The company has identified Singapore as a potential springboard for further international expansion. Its move shows how a business that started small in the Philippines can pursue overseas growth after establishing a substantial domestic operation.

Mary Grace

After building its following in the Philippines for more than three decades, Mary Grace Café opened its first international branch in Singapore on March 13, 2026. Located on Tras Street in Tanjong Pagar, the café brought its familiar ensaymadas, cheese rolls, cakes and Filipino dishes to a new market.

The company had more than 140 outlets in the Philippines before its overseas debut. In Singapore, it established a local bakery to produce its pastries fresh, while also introducing flavors tailored to the market, including salted-egg ensaymadas and kaya-pandan cheese rolls. 

Mary Grace’s expansion follows years of building its business at home before entering a foreign market. Its Singapore café gives the company a chance to see how its Filipino bakery-café concept performs among both overseas Filipinos and local customers.

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