Óscar Pizarro, CEO of the Peruvian chain of school supplies, technology and toys, analyzes the renewal of its image on the verge of turning six decades. Additionally, he shares the lessons he learned when dealing with a pandemic that suspended the school campaign.
On the verge of celebrating six decades in the Peruvian market, the Tai Loy retail chain is ready to renew its identity. It will be the next leap in the history of a business that began as a bazaar of trimmings, then evolved into the wholesale sale of school supplies and toys, and subsequently expanded into retail sales through physical stores and e-commerce.
In this way, today, Tai Loy is no longer just a protagonist in school campaigns and office purchases, but also in other situations: its portfolio offers gadgets , gifts, appliances, creative furniture, among others.
Under the brand new slogan of “The excitement of creating”, Tai Loy hopes to reach 125 stores in Peru by the 60th anniversary in 2025 and continue its internationalization process, which led it to open three branches in neighboring Bolivia last year. Likewise, the new slogan campaign will be accompanied by a gradual remodeling of all the company's stores.
At the head of the team that devised these initiatives is Oscar Pizarro, general manager of Tai Loy. A specialist in marketing and strategic thinking, Pizarro was summoned by the company's majority shareholder in 2015. The latter wanted to build a team that would guarantee business continuity and had a series of important projects in mind. However, the company maintained a very familiar structure and needed to put together a new organization.
Under this motto, Pizarro initially took over as strategic project manager with four fixed goals for Tai Loy: create an e-commerce platform , develop own brands, direct the company's expansion through mergers and acquisitions and finally, launch a marketing channel. franchises.
“The first thing we did was put together the company's first strategic plan, focused on the next five years (2015-2020). This had as goals not only the launch of the projects, but also how many stores the company was going to reach. By 2020, we set the goal of reaching 100 stores in Peru, while in 2015, we had 47 stores. That means that we had to double the number of the company's stores in just five years,” Pizarro declared for AméricaEconomía .
Given the application of the strategic plan, Tai Loy opted for e-commerce at a time when retail chains did not yet have these services and finally managed to reach the figure of 102 stores. To achieve this goal, Tai Loy had to open one store a month for five consecutive years. “Today, we have a strategic plan of 120 stores nationwide and we hope to end 2024 with 125 stores. Therefore, our growth path continues to be quite healthy,” says Pizarro.
However, the path has not been linear. When the first strategic plan ended, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. Although the company managed to complete the summer 2020 school campaign, the quarantine in Peru was finally imposed in March and the suspension of schools and work centers was imminent.
“We automatically stopped selling our main category, but on the other hand there was also the problem that we could not open more stores. So, our sales fell 36% in 2020,” explains Pizarro, who had recently assumed corporate management.
However, the results were saved from being worse thanks to the fact that the e-commerce channel already existed . This service allowed Tai Loy to quickly adapt to products that were in demand due to social isolation. Whether hygiene supplies to prevent infections; printers for remote work and even board games, which many clients requested due to the increased time they spent with their children. For 2021, this approach continued, because although the quarantine was no longer in force, the absence of a school campaign in the first months of the year affected sales.
“Although it is true that the productivity we gained in those years, the adaptation of the portfolio, our acceleration in the growth of new categories and the consolidation of e-commerce during that time allowed us to have a very accelerated recovery in 2022. In fact, we resumed the growth curve that we had before 2020 and reached S/. 1,000 million (US$ 267 million) in annual sales,” said Pizarro.
The diversification of the portfolio allowed a historical record of sales greater than S/. 1,000 million, as well as that no Tai Loy store closes its doors after the pandemic. Pizarro assures that his experience is an example of how businessmen must be disciplined to manage unforeseen events.
“It never occurred to anyone that there was a pandemic, but there was a crisis management plan. And for that, we in the executive committee used a tool that mapped all the aspects that must be worked on in the case of a crisis that limits the operation of the company. Obviously, the pandemic met this criterion, because it reduced your sales,” he explains.
Adapting this plan to the coronavirus crisis, Tai Loy's executive committee met seven days a week to make quick decisions on portfolio changes, new products to sell, plans to reopen stores, as well as generating revenue. savings projects. Pizarro believes that such a strategy manages to develop resilience in companies. The manager sums it up like this: “When you receive the impact, you must be able to react quickly.”
THE ARRIVAL OF THE NEW SLOGAN
From 2009 to 2024, “More than useful” was Tai Loy's slogan as a way to break the myth that the company only focused on school campaigns. Currently, although the pandemic has already ended, the growth of the portfolio is notable on the e-commerce platform: according to Pizarro, you can find appliances, grills, sporting goods, but also products dedicated to entertainment and creativity such as toys, books and items for children's parties.
The new motto “The emotion of creating” is based on this premise. “Tai Loy is a company that must position itself as one that opens the doors to a more creative world and life. In other words, it must satisfy that need that all human beings have to create, personalize and put passion into things,” says Pizarro.
The manager illustrates three examples: If an office worker wants to personalize his workspace, he should think about Tai Loy. If a mother wants to celebrate her child's birthday with a dinosaur theme, she should think about Tai Loy to decorate that party so that the child feels immersed in that world. Finally, a person who is fond of art should think about the company to buy utensils that allow them to express themselves through drawings or paintings.
Likewise, “The emotion of creating” will include a gradual remodeling of all Tai Loy stores, which has already been applied in Lima with the Real Plaza Puruchuco branch. The new stores will have “worlds”, personalized areas for each type of consumer. Now you will find “Baby World”, “Reading”, “Technology”, among others, including the traditional categories of toys and supplies.
“This does not mean that we sell everything, but that we offer products that are related to the emotion of creating. That is why we have expanded our portfolio of art and collections, since we know that there is an audience passionate about collecting toys or action figures, as it generates nostalgia for their childhood,” he adds.
ASSETS OUTSIDE LIMA
Last year was successful thanks to the opening of eight stores, three of these in Santa Cruz (Bolivia). Everything indicates that 2024 will not be left behind, as it will see the opening of branches in Cusco and Trujillo. While in Lima, Tai Loy will be present in malls in Surco, Surquillo, Villa María del Triunfo, as well as in the recently opened Parque La Molina.
Regarding the decision to choose Bolivia as the first international destination, Pizarro affirms that the similarity of this market with the Peruvian one weighed a lot. “The seasonality is the same. That is, classes start at the same time, although with a brief difference. In Peru, schools start in March, while in Bolivia, it is in February. Furthermore, the same brands are positioned in both countries, which has allowed us to quickly enter as a specialized chain,” he explains.
All of these factors caused the original plan to open an annual store in Bolivia to be abandoned in favor of betting on the current three. Although Pizarro recognizes that the shortage of dollars in the highland country is a notable problem, Tai Loy negotiates for large volumes of products, which has allowed them to enter the Bolivian market with affordable promotions. “Our next step will be to build a warehouse, because the demand we have there already requires an operations infrastructure,” he says.
Of course, Pizarro believes that before thinking about expansion to a third country, Tai Loy must consolidate its operations in Bolivia. Projections indicate that starting in 2026, another South American nation would be announced as a new destination for a company, which applies the emotion of creating both in its products and in the solution of small and large problems.
