Pacific Island Times Vol 3 No. 1 January 2018 | Page 5

Brief Chat
Joe Ayuyu
In the fast lane
By Mar-Vic Cagurangan
G
uam is now a second home to prominent
Saipan businessman Jose “Joe” Ayuyu,
who acquired six McDonald’s restaurants
on Guam in 2016. “I spend most of my time here
now; there’s so much to do,” says the president
of JCA Guam LLC, who also owns several residen-
tial and commercial properties on Guam.
Ayuyu is getting ready for the opening of the
seventh McDonald’s outlet in Yigo this month,
after completing the renovation of
the Tamuning location, which
has been rebranded with a
new contemporary look.
Upgrading the Hagatna
outlet is next in line. “The
facilities here are old so I
am spending a lot of mon-
ey on renovation. But it will
be worth it because I want
to modernize the restaurant
to position the company
for growth in the
future,” says
Micronesia’s
new burger czar. Ayuyu also owns JCA Inc. which
operates two McDonald’s outlets on Saipan and
are now being run by his children.
The burger chain franchise outlets on Guam
were operated by McDonald’s Corp. of McDon-
ald’s USA LLC for 45 years before Ayuyu and his
wife, Marcia E. Ayuyu, took over. The wholesale
purchase included the transfer of hundreds of
corporate employees. “It’s quite different now,
with me coming in as a new owner, because
you have a local person from the Marianas who
owns the restaurants,” says the 64-year old busi-
nessman. McDonald’s Guam and Saipan have
approximately 400 employees combined.
Born and raised on Saipan, Ayuyu attend-
ed high school in Lisbon, North Dakota and
earned a bachelor’s in economics from the
University of Hawaii at Manoa. Before taking
the step to private business, Ayuyu served in
the CNMI government. He became the director
of the Department of Commerce and Labor
from 1976 to 1981. He later joined the private
sector, serving as vice president and
manager at the Bank of Guam, and
later became vice president and
general manager of Hakubotan
Saipan Enterprises Inc. until he
entered the fast food world.
Summarizing 2017 as “a
successful year,” Ayuyu is
the recipient of the 2016
Guam Business Magazine
Executive of the Year
Award. “I am honored by
this recognition. My en-
trance to the Guam market is
a big step. I have been work-
ing on this for a very long
time. I’ve always worked to
expand my business and in
2016, I had that opportuni-
ty,” Ayuyu says.
For anyone living on a more
quiet island most of their
adult life, moving to Guam can
be a bit of a culture shock—
what with the traffic, a western environment,
a bigger crowd and kinds of distractions. But
Ayuyu is getting acclimated to the fast life— well,
faster than Saipan— on Guam. And for someone
engaged in the dining business, expanding to
Guam, which has an insatiable appetite for fast
food, is a good business move. “The most obvi-
ous difference between the Guam and Saipan
markets is that it’s more competitive here. There
are more restaurants and there are greater op-
portunities because you have a large population
base.”
The larger labor pool on Guam is a plus, as
well, he says. “My employees here are U.S. citi-
zens. On Saipan, you rely on contract workers,
which is going to be a problem when the CW
program ends.”
Averting the looming labor crisis in the CNMI
is a challen ge for local leaders and business
owners. “There is a big imbalance because
the growth of the CNMI is outpacing the labor
availability,” Ayuyu says. “Saipan leaders need to
develop a long-term plan to build a local labor
pool to support the growth of economy. I was re-
ally hoping we could continue to access the CW
program until such time as we have a sufficient
labor force.”
What’s driving the CNMI economy now is the
Imperial Pacific Resort, which Ayuyu views with
a sense of pragmatism. “I am not a gambler and
I don’t necessarily agree with what the casino is
about, but I’m happy for those in the community
who are able to find jobs,” Ayuyu says. “So I may
not agree with what the casino stands for but
I see its contribution to the economy. I am just
happy to see people making decent wages and
prospering.”
Last year, the Rotary Club of Saipan named
Ayuyu “Citizen of the Year” for his work and
contributions to the community. “Helping the
community is part of my business philosophy.
Without them, I wouldn’t have been successful,”
he says. “Now that my own children are begin-
ning to enter business, I remind them without
the community, their business is not going to be
around.”
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