Challenging Themselves to be Even More Better

Challenging Themselves to be Even More Better
By: Ella Mangabat

When Joey Enriquez of Figlia was asked whom they consider their biggest competitor as shoemakers, with all boldness and confidence, he shares, "We are our own biggest challenge, we have several brands in our company. We are competing within ourselves to do better."

Way back in 1955, his father, Ceferino Roxas Enriquez established a very popular ladies' shoe brand named, Meg's and at that time, his parents not just manufactured ladies' shoes, but men's and children's too. He started his brand, Ceferino et Figli, which means Ceferino & Sons and eventually focused on ladies footwear and later renamed it to Figlia, Latin word for daughter.

Learning Venues

His original company was a victim of the Asian crisis during the late 90's. He needed a partner and fate crossed his path with a visionary in the person of Mr. Chan Kok Bin, Celine Group of Companies' CEO and both of them share the same ideals and goals. They have been working together since 1998.

During the time of his company's inception prior to being part of Celine, his focus was on ladies' shoes.

"I feel I can be wildly creative with my designs on this line than making men's shoes. I was doing concessions store-in-store. I was expanding and creating my own presence by establishing my own boutique with the Marie Nicole brand while most got caught in the financial crash of 1997 in Asia," narrating how he has grown this big now.

With Charter International, the sister-company of Celine Marketing Corporation, they are realizing their goals doing their 4th SHUBIZZ store in Shangri-La Edsa Mall after opening in SM City Fairview Annex, Market! Market! Mall at the Global City and The Shops Greenhills.

His brands-Figlia, Marie Nicole and others are distributed in all SM and Robinson's malls, respectively. His shoe stores totals to 40+ nationwide.

He credits his success to the great possibilities of being focused to ladies foot wear since there are particular shoes for women for certain occasions, "Surely there are different shoes to wear on different occasions. Mood plays a major role in how any woman may dress up or down. For the office, a more traditional pump or sling may be appropriate for a tropical country such us ours. On a weekend, comfy sandals may be worn with skirts or a very high heeled mules with jeans. There is performance footwear for sports and an active lifestyle, but there are no more rules. Any woman may wear anything, which makes her feel confident about herself or makes her get noticed."

Going Global

Hawaiian islands, NY, California, Canada, Japan, Australia and UK are just among the places they have exported their products to, but Joey admits that Filipino's products have quite limited advantage over China's. Yet he is still confident because Filipinos are very creative and have sensibilities of both the East and the West and may utilize China's materials and production infrastructure in their unique design's execution.

What preparation are they doing to be at par with the global scene? Where do they get materials? How do they make shoe products distinctly Filipino?

With all pride, he says, "We travel a lot to attend shoe fairs and exhibitions all over the world. We get the latest color and design, trends, seasons ahead and this gives us planning leeway for our sourcing and buying.

"In the future we want to be global rather than being solely an ethnic Filipino brand that is why we continue to exhibit our shoes in trade fairs like the Manila FAME twice a year during April and October or the Asia Pacific Leather Fair in Hong Kong. Next year we plan to exhibit at the GDS Dusseldorf Germany Fair, the biggest shoe exhibition in the world."
What Filipinos can be proud about their products is the way they label it Made in the Philippines every time they export to any foreign country.
His Ascension to Making BIG

He literally had a shoe factory as a playground when he was in his growing years, or shoe making runs in their bloodlines. He grew up discovering how shoes were made and why they sell; sourcing, manufacturing and retail side of the business were among the things he acquired.

He earned a degree in Shoe Design in New York's Parsons School of Design. To date, he is the president of the Marikina Council of Fashion and a member of the Fashion Design Council of the Philippines.
He also credits his triumphs with Mr. Kok Bin's partnership, his years of experience in design, manufacture and retail has made him a seasoned shoe person. Celine continues to grow with new brands such as CMG, Traffic, Little Ones, Dots, "So! FAB", Salabianca and next year, there will be more things to come.

He concluded with a punch, "What I learned is when you fall, you pick yourself up and find opportunities with your mistakes. And as Celine's president Mrs. Vicky Chan would say, trust and HE will show you the way."

Charter International, Inc. has its corporate office situated at Suite 1801 Centerpoint Bldg, Julia Vargas Ave., Ortigas Center, Pasig City, Philippines with telephone number (632) 633-7691; facsimile number (632) 633-9777or visit their Web site at www.figlia.biz.

Link:
http://www.sme.com.ph/featured-sme-month/featured-sme-month.php?page=feature-figlia