OTARA Gunewardene is being rightfully conservative in her approach to Singapore, where she plans her first retail expansion after her immense success in her hometown of Sri Lanka. The model-turned-entrepreneur is the founder of the premium Odel department store in Colombo, the city's hottest shopping outlet for tourists and well-heeled locals alike. She also conceived Backstage, an accessories range which has five outlets in Colombo.
She is banking on Backstage to fuel her overseas expansion, and while she had no inkling of the incumbent economic crisis during the planning stage a year ago, she was already hedging her bets by opting to open just two stores here instead of an aggressive city-wide onslaught.
But starting small has always been her winning business strategy. After all, her Odel story started with her selling garments from the boot of her car.
At the time, the biology major (whose ambition at one time was to work with animals) was persuaded by her parents to return home after graduating from university in the US. She picked up fashion modelling, which included shooting export catalogues for garment manufacturing companies in Sri Lanka. One day, she was asked if she could help sell surplus stock.
'I had a side business wholesaling garments for a couple of years,' recounts Ms Gunewardene, 44, as there were several garment manufacturing factories coming up around Sri Lanka at that time. Then as business grew, she went on to rent a small 400 sq ft shop to set up Odel in 1990. At the height of the fashion store's popularity, there were nine stores around the city within a five-year period. That was when she saw the potential of having a bigger store, and she got a 10,000 sq ft building at Alexandra Place in 1999. A few years ago, Ms Gunewardene bought the building and added another 30,000 sq ft of shopping space, cementing Odel's position as the must-visit store in Colombo, selling everything from fashion to home accessories. She has more than 400 employees, with currently over 1,000 suppliers and over 200 factories locally and globally producing and supplying for Odel.
Fashion still makes up 50 per cent of the merchandise at Odel, and in June 2007, Ms Gunewardene dug deeper into her fashion modelling roots and conceived Backstage, an accessory label. 'It's a concept store selling jewellery and fashion accessories,' she explains. 'Themed around the fact that you're dressing up backstage, before going on a show.'
She sources for accessories in the region, and also comes up with inhouse designs. Backstage became so popular that Ms Gunewardene started thinking about taking it overseas.
She feels that Singapore is the best 'testing ground' for the concept, featuring stylish accessories - besides jewellery, there'll be bags, scarves, sunglasses - with a glamorous flair. Ms Gunewardene adds that she has been watching the retail scene grow in Singapore, and decided to open at Illuma - a niche lifestyle shopping concept in Bugis - because of its arty theme.
Compared to established UK brand Accessorize, Backstage will be more fashionable and a bit more glamorous, she says. 'The target age range is from 16 right up to the 50s, and the accessories are very attractively priced,' says the mother of two boys.
Besides Singapore, Ms Gunewardene is also eyeing potential outlets in Maldives and India. These might not be the best of times to expand one's business, but then again, for a mid-priced brand, it might be the best time to make an impact on a soft market.
This article was first published in The Business Times on Jan 10, 2009.
