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Friday, January 16, 2004
SM Cebu not threatened by competition from E-mall
By Jessica B. Natad
SM City Cebu is not at all apprehensive over the opening of Cebu’s 11th mall, Elizabeth Mall (E-mall). In fact, SM’s supermarket, SaveMore, is the anchor store of Augusto Go’s newest business venture.
Aside from SaveMore, other SM affiliates, such as Star Appliance Center, Watsons and Banco de Oro, are also locating inside E-mall, SM City Cebu regional marketing and communications head Hester Jane Amigo said.
“SM does not think of E-mall as our competitor. We see the mall as a venue for us to be able to tap other markets,” she said.
Earlier, Go, president and chairman of the board of E-mall developer Cebu Central Realty Corp., said the mall’s target markets were people from the southern areas of Cebu, as it is beside the Ceres and the south bus terminal.
SM City Cebu’s location, on the other hand, makes it convenient for people from the northern towns of Cebu, as it is located at the North Reclamation Area.
SM’s Amigo said despite the entry of E-mall into Cebu’s mall sector, SM has maintained its sales. But SM is not letting its guard down. It continues to be aggressive in marketing its products and services to the market.
Partner
An example is SM’s partnership with one of its tenants, Islands Souvenirs (IS), for the upcoming Sinulog Festival.
Islands Souvenirs has dressed up SM City Cebu with Sinulog decorations to create a festive mood inside the mall.
“We want to complement Cebu City’s Sinulog celebration by extending the mood inside SM,” IS vice president for marketing Lyndon Angan told a press conference at the Café Adriatico-Crossroads Tuesday.
SM’s Amigo said the Sinulog mood created by IS every January for the past eight years has been helping SM maintain the high sales momentum of December.
“January is a dead month for retail (after the December shopping spree of consumers). But SM is able to maintain the momentum (because of its Sinulog mood),” she said.
SM Prime Holdings Inc. has 17 malls nationwide, including its three new malls—SM City Marilao, SM Baguio and SM City Lucena, which opened last year.
SM chairman and president Henry Sy said in SM’s annual report that SM will continue to build at least two new malls a year.
(January 16, 2004 issue)
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