From stockroom to boardroom

Mark Christian Chan out to bring Crocs to new territories

While his grade school friends were out enjoying their break from school in the mid1980s, Mark Christian Chan was working in the stockroom of the second branch of his parents’ growing Celine shoe chain at Shoppesville, Greenhills Shopping Center, stacking ladies’ shoes for a token amount.

Not surprisingly, the then 12-year-old Chan did not exactly look forward to spending the bulk of his summer vacation or other holidays in the cramped stockroom, learning the art and science of properly stacking the shoes so it would be easy to hand them out to the customers of the fledgling family-run shoe company.

But looking back on those times now, and seeing how his parents worked hard to build their company, the 44-yearold Chan says they were invaluable and shaped the kind of president he is now of Walk EZ Retail Corp., the sole authorized distributor of Crocs footwear in the Philippines.

Those early years, for example, impressed on him the vital importance of looking at the business from all sides, not just the “glamorous” parts.

In retail, much of the success lies not just in the storefront but also the stockroom, where he first realized the value of managing inventory. That skill borne out of both experience and flair for numbers often spells the difference between profit and loss in the footwear business.

A typical shoe store, for example, may have an inventory of 2,000 pairs of shoes. There will be a minimum of 200 styles and in at least two colors, with sizes ranging from 5 to 9.

Historical data and the keen eye for the sales details will help determine just how many of each style, color or size will be kept in each store. The wrong combination means the group will be saddled with an expensive inventory of unsold shoes that they may be forced to sell at a loss down the road just to get some money back.

Playing the long game

“My father taught me that you must be able to manage not just one aspect of the business. You have to be aware of all of the areas. You need to have a holistic approach,” Chan tells the Inquirer.

Having a wide view as well

as a long-term vision, while paying close attention to the thousands of details that come with their territory, has enabled CMG Retail to thrive over the past 44 years. It has powered through crises, including the lingering COVID-19 pandemic that in 2020 forced the group to completely shut down operations of brick-andmortar stores.

CMG Retail Inc., which his parents successfully built from a single store in Escolta, Manila, in 1978, has expanded into a network of some 150 stores nationwide selling a portfolio of brands including CMG, CLN, Sofab! and Matthews.

Operations have returned to prepandemic levels with the reopening of the economy and Chan is proud that CMG Retail, a member of the Hall of Fame of the Philippine Retailers Association, has been able to emerge from the worst of the pandemic largely intact and with an appetite for further growth.

It is this enviable resilience and ability to constantly move forward—while being anchored to the values of excellence and customer service held from the group’s beginning—that Chan, the eldest son in the family, hopes to replicate in his own shoe ventures.

He started in 1999 with Traffic, a mainly male-oriented shoe store that he put up after graduating from De La Salle University with a degree in Business Management.

“We decided that it was a good idea to expand into a new business that is still related but new. We created the Traffic brand from scratch,” shares Chan, “I had to do everything: interview the staff, choose the designs, do the marketing, merchandising and even a bit of the accounting.”

The latest addition is Walk EZ, a partnership between his family and the SM Group that was founded in 2015. It is the sole authorized distributor of Crocs Footwear, which en

joyed robust sales at the height of the pandemic as Filipinos took to wearing more casual and comfortable footwear while confined in their homes.

Booming brand

Walk EZ took over the popular brand from another group that brought it into the Philippines. It has embarked on a rapid expansion mode, and is both refurbishing existing stores and setting up new ones.

As of May this year, Walk EZ owns and operates 57 Crocs mono-branded stores across the country. It works closely with all the major mall operators and is present inside 14 SM Store locations.

He shares that even with many Filipinos leaving their homes and going back to the offices, the demand for Crocs footwear continues to go up because of the desire for comfort.

The embracing of the outdoors because of the pandemic has also helped push up sales of the Crocs footwear, which has grown in scale and style selections to suit customers’ needs.

Walk EZ now has 300 people under its employ and more will be added as it widens its footprint. So far, despite economic headwinds, the demand for Crocs continues to increase, especially in the provinces, raising hopes that the company will top its record-breaking performance last year.

The performance far exceeded all expectations that they had to adjust all their buying plans last year. That momentum has fortunately extended to this year as the economy further recovers.

And as Crocs makes its presence even more felt, Chan says he and the group continue to look out for more opportunities on the horizon, such as bringing in new brands or further building on the other parts of CMG Retail.

Clearly, the lessons from the stockroom continue to pay off for Chan.