Ayala bringing in more foreign retailers to Philippines

MANILA, Philippines — Conglomerate Ayala Corp. plans to expand its presence in the country’s robust retail market by bringing into the Philippines more new foreign concepts following its successful partnership with Australian home and lifestyle brand Anko.

Mark Robert Uy, head of corporate strategy and business development at Ayala, said the group continues to look out for good concepts to bring into the Philippines.

“There are other concepts knocking on our door and we’re having the same conversation with them, which is, first of all, it needs to be a concept that addresses a pain point in the market,” Uy said.

“It has to be a big change in terms of proposition. Then next, do they need us? If they don’t need us, we don’t need to do it. So we’re doing this very deliberately and it really ties into our purpose of building businesses that can scale and address big problems and big pain points in the market,” he said.

For Ayala, Uy said a primary consideration is bringing in concepts that are significantly better than what is already out there in the market.

“So if somebody is already doing a great job there, it’s fine. We don’t have to play in that space,” he said.

Uy noted that clothing is an area that is well-served already, with a lot of really good clothing brands in the Philippines currently.

“But if there’s a unique concept abroad that resonates with the Filipino, why not? Food is another major need of Filipino customers that we think can be addressed better,” he said.

In the case of Anko, Uy said that Ayala saw a concept that was quite game-changing in Australia.

He said Anko provides good quality and well-designed products which are sold at a price point that is affordable even to the middle-class or even the lower-class Filipinos.

“So we thought it was quite game-changing and it’s something that the Filipinos deserve. So we look out for those types of concepts where we can bring in great quality, great value and give customers more choices,” Uy said.

“What we’re trying to do is we’re trying to offer great value to customers and we’ll continue to be able to look out for brands that are relevant to the Filipino customers,” he said.

Anko entered the country with the opening of its first store in Glorietta 2, Makati City in November last year.

It is set to launch its second branch in Alabang Town Center in Muntinlupa City in May and is set to open its third and largest store in the country in Trinoma Mall in Quezon City in July.

“Currently, we’re focused on really growing Anko to its full potential because we think it’s really catering to a major pain point in this market. So we have one store right now. We’re opening two more in the next couple of months. We think we’ll get five stores by the end of the year,” Uy said.

Overall, Ayala president and CEO Cezar Consing said that by capitalizing on the group’s current ecosystem, it expects to change the local retail and consumer landscape and bring new and better value concepts to Filipino consumers.

He said the group recognizes that the consumer segment is the largest industry in the country that Ayala does not currently participate in directly, noting of a significant opportunity to disrupt and enhance the current industry landscape.

“I think our businesses that are very close to consumers – BPI, Globe Telecom, AC Health – they’re doing everything they can to touch consumers already. So we ask ourselves, what do we do to do more directly? Retail is clearly out there,” Consing said.

“It’s a very fast-growing segment of the market. It is one of the fastest-growing segments of the market that we happen not to be directly exposed,” he said.