Cebu's active lifestyle paves way for 1st Puma outlet in Active Zone

CEBU, Philippines - The growing market for active lifestyle in Cebu prompted one of the leading sports and lifestyle apparel brand to open an outlet here.

The first Puma store in Cebu was recently opened at the Ayala Center Cebu’s Active Zone by a Cagayan de Oro-based company, Spruce Designer Network Inc.

Vanessa Tamparong, head of store operations in Cebu said that they were keen on opening the branch in Cebu since they know that Cebu is a big market and that the lifestyle of the people are gearing towards the sports lifestyle.

She said that they have made a serious investment for the stores both in Cebu and Cagayan but they believe that it was a very good investment as they have seen a continuous growth in sales by 30 percent in their first branch which they also aim to achieve in Cebu .

Vanessa, who runs Spruce with her two sisters-Trisha Tamparong and Aimi Lim, said that they are very optimistic with the Cebu branch especially with the spot they have in Ayala where all other stores are catering to sports gears and equipments.

Teresa Liwanag, the marketing head of the Cougar Athletic Trends Inc., which is the sole distributor of Puma in the Philippines, said that being in the active zone with all the competition is not a problem for them because the company is not there to be number one.

She explained that aside from the different and unique products that they have, their edge over the other companies is that they are not aiming to be number one but all they want is to give to the public what they need in terms of sports needs that are trendy at the same time.

Presently, Puma has nine stores in the Philippines, including in Cebu , and Liwanag said that so far, they are very pleased with the feedback that they have from their customers.

Liwanag said that since the store was on opened last month, their high expectation for Cebu was met and they are anticipating that they would have a growing market in the coming year.

Puma’s target market is the mid 20’s to 30’s age bracket however, they also have apparel for all ages too.

Liwanag also explained that the prices, which range from P1thousan to P5 thousand for all the products, are very reasonable since the quality is assured and since Puma has all their products made in their factories abroad, there are no pirated products.

Aside from the trendy and unique products, Liwanag said that they have young stars from the music industry like UP Dharma Down, Imago and Pupil as Puma ambassadors in order to promote the brand to the targeted market. —AJ de la Torre