Wildflour began as a vision shared by me and my sister Margarita (Lorenzana-Manzke) to have our own simple corner café-bakery.

Food was a big part of my family life growing up — seeing my father’s family business Lorins Patis, spending summers in my grandmother’s town bakery, food being my mother’s love language — which we then pursued by earning culinary degrees.

But it was the blessing of my late father that pushed us to take the plunge and fulfill this lifelong dream.

Wildflour definitely wasn’t an overnight success as we faced countless challenges along the way — from our target locations initially rejecting us, having to work with a ragtag team for our first-ever construction project and being plagued by build delays to experiencing empty tables during the first week as an unknown newcomer.

But thankfully, once word-of-mouth began to spread about our unique mix of comfort food, baked goods fresh out of the oven, paired with personable service and a homey ambience, the rest was history.

We soon saw before our eyes the demand for Wildflour that spread like wildfire, quickly spawning a second, third, fourth branch, then over its first decade, evolving into the diverse multi-brand, multi-location food and beverage company that we have today.

Being a chef-driven business with a young, agile organization has allowed us to navigate this extremely competitive and cutthroat industry, even through the nonstop challenges and restrictions of the pandemic. I am fortunate to have a team as passionate, hardworking and hands-on with the business as I am putting in the painstaking hours each day to make this business the best it can be.

In support of this, I cannot understate data’s importance to fueling the growth of the company, as critically analyzing every aspect of our operations allows us to make informed, strategic decisions immediately, which is ultimately crucial to the performance of the business and how we are able to stay relevant and ahead of the curve.

I also must highlight how Wildflour’s success is, in large part, thanks to our supportive partners and the advocacies we champion: we are one of the biggest proponents of the farm-to-table movement, working with women community farmers from Benguet and other parts of the country to bring the freshest ingredients to our customers as possible.

As Wildflour continues to grow, we hope to continue inspiring and uplifting our stakeholders — be it our employees, suppliers and partners — together with us.

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Ana Lorenzana de Ocampo is the co-founder, chief operating officer and president of Wildflour Group of Restaurants.