Appliances at the reach of every Filipino

MANILA, Philippines - How many local companies have surpassed the ups and downs of the Philippine economy for more than a decade? Not a lot. How about for 43 years? Emilio S. Lim Appliances is celebrating its 43rd anniversary this month and Jimmy Lim, CEO and General Manager of ESLA talks to STAR about the story behind the company’s success.

Facing challenges from the beginning

Jimmy Lim took over the business in 1992. It was also around that time that the country was experiencing eight to six-hour brownouts. This caused for the appliance industry to take a downturn because in truth, in time of economic distress, consumers will definitely not prioritize acquiring new appliances. This is how Lim came up with the “NO DOWN PAYMENT” scheme. “I was the first one to come up with that, thinking that the economy would eventually prosper,” says Lim. This idea instantly clicked with the consumers. People were starting to realize that to be able to have a television or a refrigerator at home; they don’t necessarily need the lump sum amount now, because they can pay for it in the course of 12 months. “That was the start of our success,” Lim says. Another strategy that Lim did was to not have stores in the malls. Aside from the high overhead costs, ESLA’s target market was also not concentrated in the Metro where the malls are. They were buyers outside Metro Manila, so that’s where Lim situated the ESLA branches. Consumers didn’t have to go to the malls anymore because ESLA brought the appliances closer to them. Lim says, “From 10 stores, ESLA quickly moved to around 25 branches in one year, and today we have 53 stores open already.”

Anniversary promotions

Lim shares that during his father’s time; there would always be an anniversary sale. It was how ESLA gave back to its loyal customers. But for the past five years, Lim decided to tweak this anniversary promo saying, “If you look at the newspapers, every weekend or even everyday, there are sales all over. Everybody was doing a sale every month.” To differentiate, Lim came up with a new way to excite ESLA’s customers. Starting in 2005, ESLA has been doing an anniversary raffle. On its kick-off year, ESLA gave away 1,000 electric fans to 1,000 customers. Lim shares that it was such a big hit because some of the customers shared to him that they have never won anything before. Because of the good feedback, ESLA continued to do it yearly, only varying the item to be raffled. Lim shares that they even had an appliance showcase and a panghanap-buhay showcase raffle where they gave away a passenger jeep, two multicabs and six motorcycles with sidecar. This year, ESLA is giving away motorcycles. Lim explains that although they do not sell five motorcycles, he sees that this is something that will benefit his customers. Lim continued to explain, “So that’s what we did, a shift in strategy, a shift from the anniversary sale, because we’d like to think that it’s a SALE with us everyday.”

Understanding every Filipino

“Appliances should not be a luxury but a necessity,” says ESLA CEO and general manager, Jimmy Lim. This is the vision that has kept ESLA in business for over 43 years. ESLA wants every Filipino home to have a refrigerator, television and a washing machine at the very least. Lim shares that he knows some people who have to go to the market everyday to buy their meats, he says that they don’t have anything to store the meats in that’s why they have to go back and forth. This is why ESLA offers appliances at an affordable price; to make the necessary appliances at the reach of every Filipino. ESLA wants to make the lives of every Filipino more convenient by making basic appliances easily available for them. ESLA’s strategy allows them to have a low overhead cost, and the savings from this, they pass on to their customers. Another way that ESLA makes it possible for Filipinos to purchase appliances is with the personalized installment. “We tailor fit the monthly installment plan to what the customer can afford monthly,” says Lim.

Edge over competition

ESLA doesn’t bombard customers with countless choices. “We don’t want to confuse the customer so what we do is we offer the fighter models. When a customer enters a store, he already has an intention of buying, and offering too much variety will not do any good,” says Lim. Other dealers sell more than 10 kinds of a certain appliance but ESLA offers the three best deals that a customer can get. “I check what is fast selling, and I buy a lot of that. The savings we get from that deal, we pass on to the customers,” notes Lim. That’s how ESLA affords to sell its appliances at P500 to P1,000 cheaper than other dealers. “I want our customers to feel happy after buying something from our store. I want everybody to feel that they got the best deal,” ends Lim.