Meditating on money

Woodberry Enterprises Co. was set up in 2001 without a specific product to sell. "We wanted to import general merchandise for distribution locally but we had no idea what specific products to distribute," said president Wilson Go. "What attracted us were different products such as aromatherapy and alternative health options which were being sold in different booths during a trade fair that was being held in Hong Kong at that time."

Woodberry decided to bring together such new age products in one store. Some of the products were branded and some were brought in and then repacked locally. Some were ordered from catalogs and some were negotiated for exclusive distributorship in the country.

"Our challenge was to create a market for these products. Our initial target market were the A-B market not so much because of our product pricing but because these markets are more open to new ideas and foreign trends such as meditation and relaxation through scents," said Go.

Location

Woodberry launched its product line at a BioSearch Exhibit at the Philippine Trade and Training Center.

"We were fortunate to get the last booth available but the booth was located at the end of the hall, with very little chance of attracting the crowd we needed,. You can imagine our surprise when we netted P70,000 during the four-day exhibit," said Go.

From participating in trade fairs, the company decided to go to the mall. Its first mall location was Robinson’s Place in Ermita.

"We were initially located at the lower level, which was frequented by the C-D-E markets. After four months of slack sales, we requested to be relocated to the upper floors," said Go. ""We were given kiosk space at the fourth floor, which was the beginning of the covered parking spaces of the mall that obviously attracted a different set of patrons–those with more purchasing power. Our sales went up."

Location equally paid an important factor in the company’s two other locations. In the case of SM Megamall, the company was given a space at the basement level, which was right beside the entertainment and gaining center. Sales was so poor during the first six months until the kiosk was relocated to the second floor. In the case of SM North EDSA, the kiosk was originally located at the second floor. Again, because of poor sales, the kiosk was relocated to the ground floor, right beside a bookstore.

"Although human traffic at North EDSA is heavy, the market is not the kind that appreciates our products," said Go.

In terms of sales, the highest numbers were generated by the store in Glorietta.

"The sales were beyond our imagination. But like other tenants in that hub, we couldn’t go beyond a six months contract," said Go.

Franchising

Woodberry is seriously thinking of opening up stores in the high-end markets and tourist destinations of Baguio and Tagaytay City as well as in Cebu and Davao.

Expanding outside Metro Manila will probably be done through franchising, at a ballpark figure of P250,000 for a kiosk store model.

"We don’t have competitors in this line of business yet but we realize that, in time, competition will come. We want to be so ahead that it will not matter when competitors come in. By that time, we would have developed brand recall and loyalty," said Go.

Right now, brand recall and loyalty comes with developing the market for new age products.