By: Rachelle C. Paunlagui
Today we are celebrating the grand opening of our newest concept store in Limketkai Mall, Cagayan de Oro. The 69-square meter store is dedicated entirely to the full product suite of Brother, including a wide range of printers, labeling systems, scanners, sewing machines, and more.
For our first partner spotlight, we invited Glenn Hocson, President of Brother International Philippines Corporation.
“Brother Philippines has served the country for 22 years, and we’ve been partners with Upson for 21 of those years. When we started, we want to be in Upson’s stores: Octagon, Micro Valley, and Gadget King so we can take advantage of their reach. Right away, we can have presence in more than 100 stores. Today, we’ve built ourselves around Upson’s growing retail chain. We’ve created a helpdesk and authorized over 180 service centers near Upson so more customers can have access to support. That presence has become our competitive advantage, and we’re now able to serve businesses with nationwide operations.”
Brother Philippines is geared to further expand. After all, Upson’s key strategy is to open 250 stores, or an additional retail space of 25,000 sq.m., from 2022 to 2026.
“Upson is the leading computer store in the Philippines. No question about it. They have the widest reach. Plus, they can maintain prices—their Manila price and provincial price are the same. That’s their strength.”
“Upson’s management, headed by Arlene, is professional to work with. Even though they’re carrying our competitors’ brands, we still have enough leverage. We have a harmonious relationship and there’s respect. They understand where we’re coming from, and we understand where they’re positioned in our industry.”
The new Brother concept store follows a successful pilot in 2019 and the launch of the first store in SM North Edsa in 2021. The new location is in one of the largest shopping malls in Cagayan de Oro—the 10th most populous city in the country, and 7th most highly urbanized city based on economic dynamism, government efficiency, infrastructure, and resiliency.
“Upson and Brother Philippines experimented on the idea of a concept store in 2019. At that time, Octagon has a space inside their branch in Gaisano Mall of Davao that they provided to us. It was a store within a store. It wasn’t a standalone yet. With our long relationship with Upson, we’re collaborating to rollout more concept stores this year and beyond.”
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