The Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) is the premier retailing association in the Philippines. In this interview, some of PRA officers share their thoughts about retailing issues post pandemic. They are: Jorge Mendiola, Director of SM Retail, Bernie Liu, Chairman and CEO of The Penshoppe Group, Rosemarie Ong, SEVP-COO of Wilcon Depot, Ben Chan, Chairman of Suyen Corporation, and Lorenzo Formoso, former Vice Chairman and COO of […]
Retailing
Camille Steffi Ang is the Group Manager of Marketing and Demand of GrowSari, a tech-enabled platform helping sari sari stores in the Philippines get capital loans and obtain physical and digital products for resale. She is a winner of the Mansmith Young Market Masters Awards (YMMA) for 2021 for Marketing Management. In this interview, she shares her perspective on linking her customers to […]
Q1: Your franchise package used to cost P3.5 million, then P1 million, now at P300,000. Briefly, what are their differences in terms of risks versus rewards? What is the insight behind P300,000? A1: To clarify, the P3.5m package is still around, available for new stores, and it still makes up most of our franchises. We call it the investor package, […]
Wilson Lim is founder of the Abenson Group of Companies (Abenson, ElectroWorld, Walter Mart Supermarket, Walter Mart Mall, distributorship of SB and Habitat furnitures, and Ascott BGC, among many others) that he and his team built from scratch. An unassuming businessman with a big heart, he shares his insights about growing businesses from core to adjacencies. Q1: You have been […]
Potato Corner started in 1992 as a side business of partners wanting extra income. Today, it is the undisputed leader in the french fries franchise with some 700 local stores and 145 international stores, breaking one sales record after another the last few years. Potato Corner president Jose Magsaysay Jr shares with us why and how they are encouraging entrepreneurship […]
Robina Gokongwei-Pe is the President and COO of listed Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc., the second biggest multi-format retail group in the Philippines with revenue expected to be over P100-billion in 2016 from approximately 1,500 stores, complemented by the 1,900 store network of the recently-acquired chain TGP (The Generics Pharmacy). She has recently been identified by Forbes Asia as one of […]
Samie Lim has a unique gift of visualizing the future economic development of our country, and the talent for harnessing the bayanihan spirit of business leaders by making things happen. He focuses on building unorganized business segments into strong industrial sectors with his mission ‘to serve the greatest numbers of people.’ He has spearheaded the movement to modernize our retail […]
Q1: SEAOIL is the largest independent fuel company in the Philippines and is now one of the top 60 corporations in revenues. Can you share with us the major challenges you encountered as a new entrant in the retail business in 1997 and how you overcame them? A: When we started the retail business, we were aware that we will compete with industry giants […]
Q1: Congratulations on the opening of Habitat in the Philippines. Can you tell us what is good design in the brand DNA of this European furniture brand? A1. Thank you. We are very excited with the opening of Habitat Manila and are very thankful to the positive response of the market. At Habitat, good design means beautiful, functional and affordable […]
Q1: You ventured into manufacturing bread immediately after college in the 1980’s. After two decades, you launched the first two of a series of innovations, namely the Walter Sugar Free Bread in 2005 and the Double Fiber (wheat plus apple) Bread in 2006. What was the turning point for the sudden change of direction? The market was getting crowded with […]