Abenson Appliances has been in the business of providing appliances – brown (AV equipment) and white lines (kitchen and other appliances) – for the past 25 years.
Winston Lim, the company’s head in business development and a third-generation Lim to be involved in the appliance business, says that from his father Wilson’s vision of building a "supermarket-style" appliance store, Abenson has become the leader in providing the public with select quality brands. In short, they do the choosing for you, which means that every brand at Abenson is from a company that not only produces quality appliances, but also has a strong after-sales service network locally. So you don’t get the dirt-cheap, made-in-China brands that conk out on you after three uses, and you wouldn’t know where to have it repaired because they have no service centers here.
"We really pick the brands we carry," Winston Lim says. "They’re all very established in the market. There are so many brands coming in now but they don’t have the infrastructure to support their after-sales, which renders a warranty useless. One more reason we don’t carry those brands is because in terms of pricing, they’re not very cheap. The prices of Sharp and Samsung are very close to the China brands. So for just a little more, you already get a branded and proven piece. Especially for the white lines, we carry the notable brands. You can’t afford to have your aircon or ref breaking down every now and then!"
Winston says Abenson puts emphasis on total solutions and convenience for customers. For instance, their TV section is arranged in a way that shoppers can compare the TV screens side by side – they are not arranged by brand but by kind – showing the same video. You can easily see the brand’s strength or weakness. For instance, a Philips flat-screen boasts Pixel Plus or super-detailed quality picture, while an LG boasts clarity in action pictures. Looking at one wall of TV screens, it is easy to make the decision on which brand to go for.
"Each brand pushes a different technology," explains Winston. "When you walk into a showroom today, it’s all flat-screen TVs. I think it’s because people now enjoy doing things with the family at home because they don’t have the time to go out. So they invest in a home theater system instead."
While Abenson caters to the A to C market, it tailors its merchandise according to the store location to also satisfy the D market. Abenson has 75 branches nationwide, with some of the branches being joint ventures with local businessmen in the provinces.
"When projection TV started we – who were already in the business – were asking: who would buy a hundred-thousand-peso TV? We were surprised by the demand. It’s not just the A market that’s buying this TV. Filipinos are catching up to the world market. It used to be that appliance stores were selling old models, but now people come to us looking for the new items. We’re getting to be so sophisticated. We used to carry just coffee makers, now we have cappuccino and espresso makers, etc."
Yup, people are hanging their Plasmas on walls like artworks, which in a way they are – 21st century artworks that everybody in the family will appreciate. Which brings us to the question of what to buy, plasma, LCD, or projection TV? "If you want to see something more with brightness and fast pictures, go for Plasma. Plasma also has the bigger screens, 42 inches and up," he says. "LCD TVs are usually 40 inches and below, ideal for the bedroom. LCD is cheaper in smaller sizes; Plasma is cheaper in bigger sizes."
And what does this techie have in his house? "I have an LCD in the bedroom and a 61-inch projection TV." Brands? Winston laughs and says, "All brands."
When Wilson Lim, father of Winston, started Abenson in 1970, he had just finished college. He was 22. He had watched his father Benson Lim establish and grow the family’s appliance store Automatic Centre. He borrowed P60,000 from his mother as capital for Abenson and after that "he never had to borrow any capital again."
"He grew all our businesses using that capital: Abenson, Waltermart and Electroworld, among others" says Winston. "At the time retail wasn’t a popular or glamorous choice to do after college. New graduates didn’t want to be shopkeepers or tindero; they wanted to work in multi-national companies. My father never looked at it that way, he knew from the start that he would grow his business."
Wilson Lim envisioned a chain of appliance stores that would serve all developing communities. Abenson was one of the first to expand aggressively in the Cavite-Laguna area in the 1980s and 1990s, and now the expansion is taking them north.
Winston attributes this growth to Abenson’s organizational philosophy, which is to invest in people, not just infrastructure. "One reason we’re different from our competitors is that we believe so much in customer service. We train our people well; they sell products in terms of what the customer needs not on what they will get from the commission. We regularize our people, so they become experts in what they’re selling. Abenson is family owned but we have professional managers to whom we owe the growth of the company."
The company’s fastest expansion occurred in the ‘80s and ‘90s. In 2002 and 2003, they opened 10 stores per year, which accounts for almost 20 percent of its total number of branches.
Winston, who studied finished high school at Xavier and Manufacturing Engineering and Management at De La Salle University, worked in his father’s business since he was young. "During the Christmas break we’d work in the store because that’s the busiest season. We’d be on our feet the whole day, selling alongside our staff. Our ‘payment’ was that during the summer they’d take us out on a trip."
After college, he worked for a year outside the company, then went straight to Abenson, where his brother Walter is handling marketing and sister Jacqueline is in merchandising.
"We saw how our parents were working so hard, so we thought we should be contributing to the business, too. Unlike in other family corporations where the children don’t want to join because growth is stagnant and the business is already established, with Abenson there are so many opportunities to make a difference in the company."
And the most important lesson his dad taught him? "In terms of management, it’s developing people. We wouldn’t have gone this big if we hadn’t developed our people first. A lot of our branch heads rose from the ranks. We’re very happy when people grow with us. It’s the same perspective when we look at customers, not just in terms of selling to them but making them grow with us. Our vision is ‘happy customers, great company, happy people.’ It’s all about how to get them back when the customers get married and have their own kids."
Or in today’s techie world: you sell them an iPod when they’re teenagers and a Plasma TV when they have their own families.