Muji shutters 3 stores, will open one next year as JV bites, cuts prices
The Japanese parent of Muji Philippines has confirmed it is permanently shutting down three stores in the country, but that it plans to open a new branch by next year
In a report to shareholders ahead of this month’s meeting, Ryohin Keikaku Co. Ltd. said the three shuttered stores – at Ayala Center Cebu, Robinsons Magnolia and Mall of Asia – had been “wholesalers” of the Japanese retail company.
The Muji parent did not say where it planned to open its next store in the Philippines. Its Greenbelt 3 branch has been closed for months now, ostensibly for renovation.
“We stick to our policy of adding stores only when existing ones in the country or region are running profitably, and we trust the intelligence we get from our local managers,” Ryohin Keikaku chairman Masaaki Kanai wrote in Harvard Business Review on charting Muji’s global expansion for 2018. The remaining four branches – at the Fort, Greenbelt 3, Rockwell, and Shangri-La Plaza Ortigas – are classified as directly managed stores by a subsidiary, Muji Philippines Corp., a joint-venture established last year with the Store Specialists Group of the Tantoco family.
According to Stores Specialists president Anthony Huang, the listed SSI Group contributed P89.3 million as its 51 percent capital investment to Muji Philippines, and that amid the store closings, the Muji venture still managed to end 2017 on a positive note.
In all, Stores Specialists booked a P5.3 million earnings for 2017, about 5.9 percent return, from the Muji investment, Huang said in a report to shareholders.
Since it opened its first store in the Philippines in late 2010, Muji has been positioned as an upscale branch among the local shoppers despite its “reasonably priced,” “lower than usual,” no-brand image in Japan.
Following its Japanese parent’s price markdown in January, Muji Philippines also rolled back prices on over 200 items sold locally, to the delight of its dedicated, if narrow fan base.
Explaining the price cuts, Ryohin Keikaku said expanded sales volume from its 928 stores worldwide has helped reduce procurement costs, allowing it to pass on savings to customers through lower prices.
The Japanese parent has also overhauled logistics and simplified packaging to lower overheads.
Andy Sorianos’ fourth partner
Former San Miguel chairman Andres Soriano III is apparently determined to burnish his image as a worldclass yachtsman.
The thrice-married billionaire has been discarding his yacht faster than his wives, acquiring his fourth, brandnew high-performance monohull yacht for this year’s 52 Super Series regatta around Croatia, Greece, Spain, and Portugal.
According to the grapevine, the New York-based Soriano commissioned the new TP52 from Longitud Cero, the Spanish champion boat builder, with no expenses spared. And he named the fourth iteration, what else but, Alegre. Named what else but Alegre, this fourth iteration will see action starting on May 23 for the Croatia Soriano leg.
“Even though they had a disappointing 2017 season, badly compromised after their mast broke during the Porto Cervo, Sardinia regatta, Soriano’s passion and drive remains undimmed, as his desire to continue to keep getting better,” reported the website 52superseries.com.
“Rather than remain down or disheartened with things last season, (Soriano) rung changes and started planning for 2018, one of the first to commit to a new boat build,’’ it added, discretely omitting the cost to commission a new one.
In any case, just to give landlubbers and Corinthians an idea how much fortune would be needed to acquire the racing machine, the Italian TP52 yacht Rán, built in 2011 and apparently being retired from the Mediterranean races, is being advertised for sale at 600,000 euros.
That works out to about P37 million for a seven-yearold racer, transfer and crew costs excluded.
Heard through the grapevine
A flattering feature by the Financial Times this weekend on celebrated Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa had managed to slip in a delightful tidbit that our Isabel Preysler has literally taken the Nobel Prize-winning novelist under her wing.
To those who have no time or subscription to the FT, this is the Hola-worthy item:
“Three years ago, Vargas Llosa left his wife of 50 years for Isabel Preysler, the Philippines-born socialite whose first husband was Julio Iglesias, the pop star, (and)... moved to Preysler’s house, a mansion on the outskirts of Madrid that she built with her deceased third husband Miguel Boyer, the former economy minister.”
E-mail: moneygoround.manila@yahoo.com