Rustan's unit to bring in 3 new brands this year

MANILA, Philippines - Stores Specialists Inc. (SSI), the lifestyle brands unit of the Rustan Group of Companies, will launch three new luxury brands this year, an official said.

“Our thrust is always a lifestyle offering. And such, we have new categories, lifestyle-oriented categories that we are launching this year in September or October,” SSI executive vice-president Anthony T. Huang said.

“We are looking at around two or three new brands,” he said.

SSI, the company behind Zara, Prada, Lacoste and Debenhams in the Philippines, has already completed talks with brand owners to launch new luxury goods in the Philippines.

But Huang said the company is still under a confidentiality clause pending the launch.

SSI was created in 1987 to acquire, manage and develop exclusively the world’s top lifestyle brands.

Huang said the company launched three new brands last year.

“We are continuing to open more stores of existing brands and opening new stores of new brands in the new shopping mall developments that are coming up in the market,” Huang said.

SSI claims to have the largest and choicest luxury upmarket fashion lifestyle portfolio. It has 72 brands and more than 250 free standing shops and boutique shops totaling over 250,000 square feet of retail space.

SSI is already expanding outside Metro Manila, which accounts for bulk of its earnings.

“We are predominantly in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. Last year we expanded into Davao and Cagayan de Oro as well and we are also in Pampanga,” Huang said.

“We are looking at other secondary markets in the country and seeing what other opportunities are present in those markets,” Huang said.

Under the company’s strategy, new brands and stores will be launched in second-tier cities where there are new business process outsourcing offices and tourism-related development.

“As the economy there begins to prosper and real estate developers begin developing the proper retail environment, there are more opportunities for us to open our stores there as well,” Huang said.

Other brands SSI brought in the country include Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, Burberry, Gucci, Salvatore Ferrogamo and Samsonite.

SSI also owns Beauty Bar, a specialty personal care concept store carrying a selection of personal care and beauty products, and designer home and office improvement store Makeroom.