Henry Sy: From a boy selling shoes to becoming the richest billionaire in the Philippines

The SM Group of billionaire Henry Sy's family is the largest enterprise in the Philippines, including 7 listed companies.

The group's core businesses include shopping malls, department stores, supermarkets, retail brands, banking and finance, real estate development and tourism. Their business empire was built from scratch by Henry Sy, the breadwinner who led the extended family to work hard together to success.

From grocery store to shoe store

Henry Sy was born in Fujian province, China in 1924. At the age of 12, he went to the Philippines with his parents and settled in Manila. Later, when he became famous, he once answered in the magazine that:

"Many years ago, a skinny black-skinned Chinese boy went to a foreign country, without a penny in his pocket, didn't know English or Tagalog (the national language of the Philippines), only had the will to reach out. to immortality."

After coming to the Philippines, his parents put all their savings to open a small grocery store on the corner of the street that specializes in selling vegetables, dry goods and daily necessities. During the day, he worked at the counter while reading and selling, doing homework in the afternoon, sleeping at the counter late at night. Although it was hard, he had a strong will and liked doing business since he was a child.

But the family's only capital was destroyed during World War II. Mr. Sy's family lost their property and was forced to stop doing business, life became difficult. In 1948, he imported shoes from the US to the Philippines and opened a shoe store, his business was very prosperous. After that, he completely focused on business and stopped going to University.

After focusing on the shoe business, he expanded to develop 3 more stores, followed by opening a large shopping mall specializing in shoes called ShoeMart. Since 1955, he has traveled around the world by propeller plane, importing shoes to the Philippines. In just a few years, he set a record of selling 100 million pairs of shoes and earned the title of "King of the Shoe Industry" at the time.

From a department store to a mall

In the 1970s, Henry Sy expanded his business from the shoe industry to a department store that integrated shopping and entertainment. "The footwear industry has brought in customers, and I can sell them other goods." - he said.

Henry Sy has mobilized all the strength of his family and trained his children to be effective right-handers. The first department store was founded by Henry Sy with his eldest daughter. In 1970, his 20-year-old eldest daughter - Teresita Sy Coson - was preparing to continue her studies to get a Master's degree when he asked him to "come back to help her father". In fact, her efforts paid off, and soon sales in the store doubled.

Two years later, Henry Sy asked Teresita to open the first department store in Manila. This department store has a business area of 20,000 square meters, among the magnificent goods in the Philippines at that time. Because it's the first time, the design of the store, how to display the products... are all a mystery to Teresita Sy. To confirm her ability with her father, she worked hard and visited many trade fairs to gain experience.

In 1972, Henry Sy and his daughter succeeded in expanding ShoeMart into an SM department store.

After that, the billionaire family strived to bring SM department store to No. 1 in the Philippines. In his early years, he saw business opportunities in shopping malls in Europe and the United States, and believed that this was the future of retail consumption. In 1985, Henry Sy invested heavily in the construction of a large shopping center. That breakthrough brought completely new shopping and consumption concepts to the Philippines, and made Henry Sy a pioneer in the Asian Shopping Mall industry.

At the same time as opening a large shopping center, he also launched a cooperative business model, leasing some stores to other businesses and gathering the power of many businesses to run a "kingdom" of selling goods. retail, own consumption.

This made Henry Sy the true king of shopping malls, allowing him to gradually transition his business from pure retail to real estate development and mall management, creating 1 completely new business model - real estate. Until now, the big shopping centers of SM group in the Philippines are still a combination of commerce and real estate. 60% of the area is self-managed by the group, such as department stores, home furniture, cinemas, etc. The remaining 40% is space for development partners.

Expansion of financial territory beyond commerce

In 1976, Henry Sy acquired Acme Savings Bank, later renamed Banco de Oro Savings & Mortgage Bank, with the original purpose of serving ShoeMart's business transactions. In 1996, the bank changed its name again to Banco de Oro Universal Bank (BDO) and received a commercial banking license from the Central Bank of the Philippines and has now become one of the largest commercial banks in the Philippines. Philippines.

A friend once asked Henry Sy why the billionaire invests in the banking industry, he replied that SM has a lot of customers and suppliers who need financial services, if it can provide them many services. more and make money, why not do it. "We make customers happy, people need what they want. I'll provide what people need." - Billionaire Henry Sy said. This is also the logic in the expansion of the billionaire family's business: based on existing advantages, linked to customer needs and expanding into a variety of industries.

Open shopping mall in China

Since the 1990s, China's economy has begun to develop. The billionaire family assesses that the Chinese market will be a huge development opportunity. After decades of development, when investing abroad, they still stick to the family investment strategy and have a solid financial map without relying on borrowing.

Billionaire Henry Sy's family has not only expanded their business in China, but since 2002, Henry Sy and investor Ly Gia Thanh have jointly developed the Philippine retail market and established a chain of product stores. Watsons personal focus on pharmaceutical cosmetics and personal care products.

In a diversified family business, president Henry Sy allows his sons and daughters to operate "separately" according to their expertise or personal interests, while managing different types of assets in the industry. family's huge industry, forming a co-operative "specialist in engineering" phenomenon.

Mr. Sy stepped down as Group Chairman in 2017 and assumed the title of Honorary Chairman, leaving his children and a trusted executive leadership team at the helm. "He passed away peacefully in his sleep early Saturday morning." - Announcement of the billionaire family in 2019.

In addition to his wealth and brilliant business sense, Henry Sy is also admired by many for his way of educating his children. Having 6 children, he always taught them to appreciate perseverance and hard work. Since the age of 13, the billionaire's children have had to go to the supermarket to load goods on the shelves and work as cashiers. Now, his children and grandchildren are all involved in the family business. All 6 children of the billionaire have inherited the corporation. In particular, Teresita Sy Coson - his eldest daughter often represents SM at international events and is considered the brightest successor to billionaire Henry Sy.

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