JAPANESE brand Casio opened its first-ever Cebu City retail store — its biggest to date — as brick-and-mortal retail bounces back from the impact of Covid-19 pandemic.
Located at the upper ground floor, mountain wing of SM Seaside City Cebu at the South Road Properties, the newly opened store boasts a modern interior that reflects the global brand’s reputation for creating quality, innovative, and design-driven products, and timepieces that suit different functions to satisfy and sustain their appeal to entirely different sectors of the market.
The new Casio concept store is part of the aggressive expansion program of Newtrends International Corp., which hopes to open more Casio mono brand stores nationwide in the near future.
The Casio team said Cebu’s opening of a Casio concept store reflects the firm’s renewed confidence toward the future. It also said Cebu is a mature market that can already handle brands that are expanding particularly in this post-pandemic business climate.
Casio’s concept store showcases G-Shock, Baby-G, and the general Casio line. The store targets the fashion-forward young market that values affordable yet stylish and functional timepieces to match their dynamic lifestyle.
“Our goal is to bring to Cebu the wide assortment of Casio watches in Cebu,” the group said.
“We are excited to bring the first and biggest Casio store in Cebu,” said Paulo Santos, marketing director of Newtrends International Corp. “Our Casio store in SM Seaside City promises to offer timepieces that cater to a wide range of budget, style preferences and lifestyles.”
Santos added that brick-and-mortar retail is on the rise again as economies opened up and as the spread of vaccines makes it safe to spend more time in shops and malls again.
“Retail stores during at the height of the pandemic took a hit. But for this year, we’ve been logging good sales already,” he said, referring to the so-called “revenge spending” among consumers.
Newtrend is in the business of distribution, retailing, and marketing of international branded accessories with a focus on timepieces, writing instruments and jewelry.
G-Shock has been one of Casio’s bestselling timepieces but Santos also noted a steady increase in demand for smartwatches that are equipped with a lot of features.
Dubbed as the “pride of Japanese watch,” Casio has been true to its Japanese roots with a 50-year legacy in watchmaking that has allowed the brand to cement its reputation for creating watches with multifunctional qualities and characteristics.