Before Fruitas became a household name in the Philippines, its founder and CEO Lester Yu was on a very different path. Fresh out of college, he didn’t dive straight into entrepreneurship. Instead, he began his career in banking—a choice that gave him a crash course in leadership, responsibility, and the value of timing.
Looking back, Yu believes those formative years shaped the way he would later build Fruitas into a nationwide food and beverage powerhouse.
“I was made a branch head at a very early age—21 years old—because there was no supply,” he recalled, referring to the boom in banks after the liberalization of the financial industry.
A Career Accelerated by Circumstance
Yu joined Westmont Bank in 1995 as a management trainee. It was a fortunate time to enter the industry. “During that time the bank liberalization law was enacted. So banks proliferated because of that,” he said.
With so many new branches opening and not enough experienced managers to lead them, the opportunity came knocking earlier than expected. By the age of 21, Yu was entrusted with leading an entire branch—an unusual responsibility for someone so young.
He described the experience as a mix of pressure and opportunity. On one hand, it accelerated his career. On the other, it forced him to grow up fast in a high-stakes environment. “My career was accelerated because there’s no supply,” Yu explained.
Lessons in Responsibility and Discipline
Managing a bank branch meant handling not just financial operations but also people—employees much older and more seasoned than him. For a fresh graduate, the challenge was enormous.
Yu admitted that the experience taught him discipline. “I worked for Westmont for four and a half years,” he said, adding that his time there provided a foundation in responsibility, systems, and compliance.
The structured environment of banking also instilled in him the importance of checks and balances—something he would carry with him when he transitioned into entrepreneurship. In business, especially in retail, financial discipline is just as critical as innovation.
Timing as a Key Ingredient
If banking gave Yu stability, it also taught him how much timing can affect success. The rapid expansion of banks in the 1990s gave him opportunities he might never have had in a different era. But timing also works the other way, as Yu later learned when he shifted into entrepreneurship.
After leaving Westmont Bank, he plunged into the pearl shake business, launching Lush Coolers at the same time Zagu and Orbitz were making waves. The fad brought him rapid growth—but also a rapid downfall. “We grew from zero to 75 stores probably in two, three years. But the fall was even faster,” he admitted.
The contrast between his disciplined years in banking and the volatile world of food fads gave him an important insight: timing matters, but sustainability matters more.
Carrying Banking Discipline into Fruitas
When Yu finally launched Fruitas in 2002, he was no longer the wide-eyed young banker who got lucky with timing. He was a seasoned entrepreneur who had learned the value of patience, discipline, and risk management.
“In the beginning, it was not so profitable, it was not lucrative,” he shared about Fruitas’ early years. But unlike with his first venture, this time he stuck with it—applying the same consistency and structure he had once practiced in banking.
Every peso earned was carefully reinvested. “We had to scrimp so that the business can be sustained,” Yu explained.
The habit of safeguarding capital, which was second nature in banking, became his shield during Fruitas’ slow early growth.
Leadership That Lasted Beyond Banking
Yu’s leadership style also evolved from those early days of managing a branch at 21. In Fruitas, he places high importance on training, professional management, and financial discipline—qualities that echo his banking foundation.
He even admits that knowledge gaps in accounting and finance challenged him later when Fruitas prepared to go public. “I now realize because we’re going public, it’s so important,” he said, noting how proper financial systems make or break companies
It was a reminder of the structured world he had left behind in banking, and why he sought out experts to strengthen his team.
From Branch Manager to Business Builder
The story of Lester Yu is one of transformation. The 21-year-old banker who once found himself running a branch out of necessity grew into an entrepreneur capable of running a thousand outlets. What remained constant was the discipline and sense of responsibility he learned in those early years.
For aspiring entrepreneurs, his journey carries a valuable lesson: before you can scale big, you need to master the basics of leadership and financial discipline. Sometimes, the best preparation for building your own empire is learning how to take care of someone else’s.
As Yu put it best: “I was made a branch head at a very early age—21 years old—because there was no supply.”
That early push into leadership gave him the foundation to eventually create Fruitas, one of the country’s most enduring homegrown brands.
