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Max's Group, Inc.
Max's Group runs and franchises restaurant and coffee shop brands, mainly in the Philippines and also abroad.
Max's Group is a restaurant company. It owns and franchises a family of dining brands, the most famous being Max's Restaurant, a Filipino chain known for its fried chicken and home-style Filipino food. If you grew up in the Philippines, there is a good chance you have eaten at one of its tables.
The business is built on brands that feed people at different price points and occasions. Max's Restaurant is the flagship, a sit-down family place. Around it sit other concepts: Max's Corner Bakery, the casual dining spot Yellow Cab Pizza, the Japanese-inspired Teriyaki Boy, and the coffee chain Sbarro and Krispy Kreme-style treats through its brands. Rather than inventing one new restaurant, the company buys or builds several and runs them under one roof. The money comes from customers buying meals and drinks, and from franchisees who pay to use the brand and follow its playbook. The franchise piece is what makes this more than just a restaurant operator. Franchising lets the company grow without paying for every store itself. A franchisee puts up the money and runs the shop, and Max's collects fees and takes a cut. That is how the brands can spread across the Philippines and into overseas markets with Filipino communities, like the United States and the Middle East. The catch is that the company only grows as fast as its partners are willing and able to open new outlets, and it has to keep its brands appealing enough that people keep coming back.
Restaurants are a tough, honest business. Food costs move, rents climb, and customers can always choose somewhere cheaper or trendier. Max's Group competes with everyone from giant fast-food chains to small neighborhood eateries. Its edge is familiarity and scale: a trusted name, a spread of brands, and a franchise network that lets it reach more places than it could alone. Whether that translates into steady profits depends on keeping the food good, the prices fair, and the stores full.
Saved answer · last researched 14 Nov 2026
BIG PICTURE
Most of Max's Group's staff works in Southeast Asia, but not all of it
- 91.3% Southeast Asia
- 8.7% Arab States, North America and elsewhere
Max's Group runs restaurants in the Philippines and abroad, and its payroll follows that map: 91.3% of its roughly 5,300 employees sit in Southeast Asia, with Arab States at 4.0% and North America at 2.1%. The money that pays them comes from diners at Max's Restaurant, Yellow Cab and Krispy Kreme counters, nearly all in the home region. Source: Revelio Labs, data from 2026
Timeline
Max's Restaurant Starts in a Home
Max's Restaurant began in 1945 as a single restaurant inside the founder's own home. Its fried chicken became the signature dish, and the brand earned a nickname that stuck: the house that fried chicken built.
Pancake House Lists on the Exchange
In 2000, a small restaurant company called Pancake House went public on the Philippine Stock Exchange. It was tiny, valued at only a few hundred million pesos — easy to miss, and easy to forget.
Max's Buys Pancake House
In 2014, Max's Group bought the listed Pancake House from the Lorenzo group for 3.5 billion pesos. Pancake House then swallowed 20 Max's companies in a share swap worth over 4 billion pesos, leaving one company with 14 brands and about 500 outlets — the country's largest casual dining chain. The tiny listed shell from 2000 had become the doorway to something big.
Pancake House Becomes Max's Group
That same year, the company dropped the Pancake House name and became Max's Group, Inc., with the stock ticker switching from PCKH to MAXS.
A Follow-On Offering to Pay Debt
At the end of 2014, the company sold more shares to the public, raising fresh capital to pay down the debt from its acquisitions and to fund more stores and commissaries.
The Stock Peaks, Then Falls
Excitement around the transformation pushed the stock to an all-time high in September 2014. But the annual report told a messier story: revenue rose to nearly 5 billion pesos while the company posted a net loss, as the costs of stitching all those brands together weighed on earnings. A decade later the stock sat near 2 pesos, a shadow of its peak.
760 Stores Worldwide
By the end of 2019, Max's Group ran 760 stores worldwide, a net addition of 55, with most in the Philippines and 70 abroad. It also opened a flagship multi-brand store called EDSA Eats.
A Food Manufacturing Center in Carmona
In 2022, a new food manufacturing and distribution center in Carmona, Cavite began operations. The group started selling its frozen favorites in supermarkets and to business partners, adding food retail as a second leg beside its restaurants.
Robert Trota Returns as CEO
In late 2023, Robert Trota came back as president and CEO. He had held the job since 2014, so he already knew the company through its best and worst years.
Down to 573 Stores
By the end of 2025, the network had shrunk to 573 stores, 60 of them abroad, down from earlier peaks. The company pointed to a tough casual dining market and softer demand, and Trota said it had streamlined its stores and shifted resources toward manufacturing and customer-facing technology.