A good Filipino pastry is a cultural must-have for locals and visitors alike. There’s no shortage of options, but the market for it was mostly dominated by commercial producers that tended to mark the prices up beyond what many Filipinos considered standard. Cyrill Chan’s family recognized that gap, and sought to create a concept that was both delicious and affordable.
The First Two Years
The first two years were defined by growing pains. Limited capital meant limited options, and the early location choices didn't work out. The business was carrying debt and searching for traction.
The solution to Panero’s problem came in the form of a Sunday community market in Quezon City.
Cyrill and his sister started showing up weekly, selling to this particular neighborhood, getting real feedback, and building relationships one pastry at a time. Market customers were particular — they wanted to see the owners, talk to them, know the people behind what they were buying. That kind of direct engagement built a customer base that stuck around.
Through consistently participating in these Sunday Markets, the business slowly stabilized. Now, Panero runs three physical locations: an inline store at SM North EDSA and kiosks at Robinsons Galleria and Walter Mart North.
Moving past survival, they’re now on the trajectory of growth.
Family & Familiarity
Panero runs as a three-person leadership team: Cyrill handles the entrepreneurial and commercial side, his sister manages operations, and their mother owns R&D — product development, recipe consistency, commissary standards. Their mother's focus on quality is a significant part of why the product holds up across locations.
"We treat each other like colleagues," Cyrill says. Professional accountability, not familial deference, is their operative practice. It's a distinction that matters when a family business is trying to scale past its founders — and one that's allowed Panero to build a team of 30 without the structure collapsing under the pressure of personal dynamics.
Alternatively, Cyrill's relationship with PayMongo goes further back than most merchants. He was an early user of the platform during its testing stages – before it was even called PayMongo. A friend to Co-Founder Luis Sia, Cyrill actually witnessed the company’s early flow and saw it grow into the product suite it is today. This perspective gave him confidence in the business’ capabilities.
When Panero launched in 2023, it integrated multiple payment methods – PayMongo included –to accommodate various customer preferences.
A Unified System
Panero uses PayMongo’s QR Ph across its locations. Given the foot traffic and pace of the business, the static QR standee thrives in accepting payments.
A static QR code routes all incoming payments to the same record. For a multi-location business running dozens of transactions a day, being able to see all incoming payments under one dashboard reduces administrative load significantly.
"It prevents input errors," Cyrill explains. The dashboard provides a spotless record — automated weekly payouts to his bank account, clean transaction history, and a unified view across all branches.
The deeper benefit, though, is structural. Before integrating a business QR, Panero's transactions were manually managed and constantly at risk of mixing personal and business funds. Scaling a business on tangled finances is one of the fastest ways to create problems that look like operations issues but are actually accounting issues. Digital payment records removed that ambiguity. Business money stays in the business.
Removing Friction
Panero's trajectory reflects something PayMongo sees often: a merchant who was building digitally before digital was standard, who used every tool available to remove friction from operations, and whose financial infrastructure grew alongside the business itself.
A hassle-free payment acceptance method. A unified dashboard for visibility across locations. Automated payouts that take bank reconciliation off the weekly to-do list.
PayMongo's role in Panero’s journey is fundamental: systems that eliminate error-prone accounting tasks so businesses can put more time into expansion.
This kind of dependable foundation is exactly what a growing business can rely on.
As The Dough Rises
Panero's five-year vision is expansion into major communities across the country, with quality and value as the non-negotiables. The goal is to make Panero the go-to brand for high-quality Filipino bread — for everyday Filipino customers and visitors alike.
The biggest near-term project: a 230-square-meter restaurant concept in Salcedo. Open kitchen, experiential dining, the full breadth of what Panero can do when it isn't confined to a kiosk format. It's a move from transactional retail to brand experience — a signal that Panero aims to evolve from in-and-out to an atmosphere where customers are happy to linger and commune.
Cyrill's advice for other entrepreneurs building at this stage is direct: fix your finances first, find mentors who've already solved the problems you're facing, hire people who can actually lead, and don't stop learning once things start working.
To learn more about PayMongo, visit www.paymongo.com. Sign up for free today and discover PayMongo’s suite of financial tools to kickstart your business growth.
Panero Pandesal is a PayMongo merchant based in the Philippines, with locations at SM North EDSA, Robinsons Galleria, and Walter Mart North, specializing in artisanal Filipino bread.