Evolve or else…

Primer Group president and CEO Jimmy Thai

It is not the fastest nor the strongest who survive. Rather, it is those who are most willing and able to adapt to radically changing environments.

This is true for plant and animal species, and true as well for corporations, including local retail companies that have been buffeted by such seismic shifts as the exponential growth in e-commerce and the entry of local and foreign brands.

The Primer Group of Companies is one such retail group that has embraced rather than shunned changes, thus has managed to survive in a tough retail environment marked by tightening margins and ever-increasing competition.

Adjusting required making some painful decisions, however, such as rationalizing the branch network to make it more cost-efficient. But they needed to be done and done fast, says Primer Group CEO Jimmy Thai.

These days, the speed required to adapt to change is faster, says Thai, so fast that to hesitate may mean disaster.

This is one reason why the Primer Group immediately signed up to be a partner of Globe Fintech Innovations Inc. (Mynt)—a partnership between Globe Telecom, Ayala Corp. and Ant Financial—and roll out the GCash QR-based mobile payment technology across its over 400 stores.

With the partnership, customers get another payment option, which is the use of GCash credits to purchase items in its stores that include Recreational Outdoor eXchange (ROX), The Travel Club and Bratpack.

Using the scan-to-pay feature of GCash is simple. A customer with an iPhone or Android smartphone only needs to download or update to the latest version of the GCash app, register an account and fund their GCash wallet at any of over 15,000 GCash partner outlets nationwide. Once done, the customer just needs to tap on Scan QR, point a phone’s camera at the partner’s QR code, and then pay.

“We see how the world has been changing so it is very apt for us to embrace the technology and the platform. You can’t just be stubbornly sticking to the old ways of doing things,” Thai tells the Inquirer. “We are anticipating that digital payments will grow even more so we may as well be present rather than be left behind.”

“Everybody is pivoting right now, it is traditional versus the new. But it is inevitable. Change is a part of our life and now we can’t afford to wait. You just have to take a bit of risk,” he adds.

Thai also said in a statement that in taking the opportunity to offer new payment gateways, “we are further equipped to strengthen our position among the leading authorities in the retail industry, more so with our expansive travel and outdoor gear brands composed of both established and up-and-coming labels.”

Thai acknowledges that the rapid growth of e-commerce has turned the retail environment on its head, in that brick and mortar stores are feeling the weight of rising rent and lower sales. The intense traffic in the metropolis does not help as it has discouraged many potential buyers from visiting the malls, and consequently making shopping via mobile phones or computers a much more convenient and viable choice.

For Primer, the only logical strategy to adopt is to be present in the digital space, initially by working together with established online marketplaces such Zalora and Lazada. Eventually, Primer may consider putting up its own digital marketplace considering the breadth of the brands that it carries.

At the same time, Thai says there remain pockets of opportunity in the provinces where economic growth has led to an increase in the people’s purchasing power. It is outside Metro Manila where Primer will expand, he says, as the capital is “already at a point of saturation.”

And as it expands both in the offline and online space, Thai says the Primer Group will put a premium on collaboration as you can’t do everything on your own. The company will also adopt a more laser-like focus on expansion areas, making sure it does not stretch itself too thinly given the competitive landscape.

“We are still expanding but we are more cautious, unlike before. This is all part of consolidation to address efficiency. We are already building new blocks and entering a new stage of growth,” says Thai.

The Primer Group has been in the retail industry for some 33 years and Thai has not lost any of the energy that he had when he and his friends pooled resources to put up the company in 1985.

“I am enjoying the journey,” Thai says.