FEATURE ARTICLE
What´s In Store
for Asia´s Star Retailers?
On the Cover
In the globalization challenge that will test the limits
of retailing, Launch Asia's Business Editor Denice Christine
Garcia brings you six retail stalwarts who possesses what
GE's Jack Welch calls the 'globalization of the mind'
as they set off from the Philippines to the frontiers
of Asia, and to the rest of the globe.
Globalization has made
competitiveness of paramount significance to the success
of almost any business. In today's global marketplace,
the hurdle sounds high especially for previously closed
economies that are now opening up their markets. The Philippine's
retail sector is no exception.
When the Retail Trade
Liberalization was signed into law last March 7, 2000,
it also opened the gates wider for foreign retailers who
may now own 100 percent of retail ventures in the country,
provided the paid-in capital is above the specified threshold.
Most of them penetrated the local market through joint
venture agreements or franchising, which have also become
the norm across continents.
Eduardo N. Roa, managing
director of ACNielsen Philippines, adds that initiatives
from the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Asia Pacific
Economic Council (APEC) also indicate the opening up of
the RP market.
The good news for local
retailers is that consumers - however price sensitive
they may be - continue to troop to the malls and shopping
centers despite the slowdown in the economy. Consequently,
mall developers and retailers who crave for space have
also been coming on stream in anticipation of rising incomes
and optimistic growth.
The country's largest
retailer SM Prime Holdings, Inc., for instance, have recently
disclosed its plans of coming up with two malls every
year after realizing a 10.69 percent growth in its net
income during the first three months of this year to P901
million from only P814 million in the same period last
year.
Prospects for the new
entrants in the country with the right marketing combination
and who can leverage their global brands have never been
brighter as well. "Filipino consumers will readily
accept global consumer products," Roa declares as
he refers to the volume measures taken from ACNielsen's
Retail Audit (i.e., biscuits, chocolates, and canned fruit)
which indicate the Filipino's predisposition toward imported
products. Roa went on to explain that such high level
of awareness can also be traced back to the Philippine's
historical roots as well as the heavy dosage of advertising
that accompany global brands.
Indeed, the current
free market scenario is both a threat and an opportunity
particularly for local retailers, adding to already critical
factors like the status of consumer spending, oil prices,
rising interest rates, and the fluctuating stock market.
In the globalization
challenge that will test the limits of retailing, we bring
you six retail stalwarts who set off from the Philippines
to the frontiers of Asia, and most of them have already
began luring the rest of the globe with all the right
moves. Take Josie Cruz Natori who found her niche in intimate
apparel in the United States, in Asia and in other continents
in Europe where it used to be a sleepy industry in the
Philippines. Our variation of samplings also include myAyala.com,
a premiere online shopping site that reaches the Pinoy
market in Asia and abroad with the advent of electronic
commerce, 7-Eleven Philippines after having found its
formidable ties with Taiwan's President Chain Store Corporation,
and Toby's Sports, the accidental emporium that revolutionized
the country's sports retailing. We also shopped for retailing
must-haves from Anton Huang, the retailing specialist
who brings the world's best brands to Philippine shores
and Fort Bonifacio's Global City, an emerging new retail
and entertainment district that promises to provide a
lucrative shopping destination like never before.
We dug deep into what's
common among the key people behind these successful stores,
and we find that they all have what GE's Jack Welch calls
the globalization of the mind - a very essential tool
for our featured Star Retailers who have found their glitter
shining much brighter throughout the Asian region, and
arguably the rest of the globe. * * * *
HIGHLIGHT:
The current free market scenario is both a threat and
an opportunity.
|