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Metro Pacific nearing deal for biomass project

By Arra B. Francia
Reporter
METRO PACIFIC Investments Corp. (MPIC) looks to close the deal for a biomass project by the end of the month, which it hopes would be among the first of many projects in the renewable energy sector.
“We are also doing a biomass project that is close to signing, it will be using agriculture inputs,” MPIC President and Chief Executive Officer Jose Ma. K. Lim said in a press briefing in Makati last week.
MPIC Chief Finance Officer David J. Nicol said the project will have the capacity to produce “a few single digit megawatts.”
“It is the first of what we hope could be many, it’s an experiment. We have to see if it works, if it does it’s very quick payback and profitability, so much more immediate in terms of returns generation than some of the projects in the segment,” Mr. Nicol said.
The biomass project is part of the company’s plans to be a significant player in the renewable space.
The listed infrastructure conglomerate, in a consortium with Covanta Energy LLC and Macquarie Group Ltd., has currently partnered with the local of government of Quezon City for an integrated solid waste management facility (ISWM), which if realized would be its first renewable energy project.
The facility looks to process up to 3,000 metric tons a day from Quezon City’s municipal waste, converting it to around 42 megawatts that can power some 60,000 to 90,000 homes.
Mr. Lim said the P15-billion project that started five years ago will undergo Swiss challenge by next year, with competitive bids scheduled to be submitted by January.
“We are hopeful to be able to proceed with the implementation shortly after,” Mr. Lim said.
MPIC is also conducting studies for a similar waste-to-energy project in Pampanga, along with Chinese partner China Everbright Group.
“The study has been completed, we have joined forces with a Chinese firm, China Everbright, to conduct this study, right now the evaluation is undergoing the results. We haven’t got a business plan for Pampanga at the moment, we’re still developing one,” Mr. Lim said.
The MPIC executive noted that they continue to look at other large areas with similar waste volumes as Quezon City.
“The challenge in those areas is that the volume is spread out, it’s not concentrated unlike in Metro Manila where you get about 10,000 tons all in one area every day. In other areas, you’d be lucky to get 700 tons. The technology is different for them,” Mr. Lim explained.
Power generation is among MPIC’s core interests, alongside toll roads, water, railways, hospitals, and logistics. It posted a core net income of P12.2 billion in the first nine months of 2018, 8% higher year-on-year, driven by a 8% increase in system-wide revenues to P302.9 billion.
MPIC is one of three Philippine units of Hong Kong-based First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being PLDT, Inc. and Philex Mining Corp. Hastings Holdings, Inc. — a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc. — maintains interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls.

Natori brings Japonisme and seasonless appeal in new collection

Josie Natori 1
Josie Natori RTW Knit Crepe Pants with Peacock Embroidery and Josie Natori Velvet with Feathers Choker

BOLD AND neutral caftan dresses with embroidery that appeal to young female professionals; printed matching pajamas, and silk lingerie that may be worn for outdoor activities and events — these are some of the statement pieces in Josie Natori’s Fall 2018 and Resort 2019 Ready-to-Wear collection.
Josie Natori (Josephine Almeda Cruz) was born in the Philippines and left Manila at 17 to study in the US. While working in finance, she began importing embroidered tops from the Philippines for a department store in the US. In 1977, she opened House of Natori, a brand known for its East/West aesthetic.
The Fall 2018 collection is inspired from the concept of Japonisme — a French term coined in the late 19th century to describe the craze for Japanese art and design in the West, according to the Tate Modern. The Natori collection is designed with using the colors duchess rose, gilded mint green, orchid pink, persimmon, and imperial violet, with the peacock as the main detail.
“Every collection evolves. It has a kind of decadence,” fashion designer and founder of House of Natori, Josie Natori told BusinessWorld at last week’s launch at the Raffles in Makati.
“I have a love for the arts. I have a love of things in the East. All this gravitated to artful things. There is always something about the East that always captivated me — exoticness and embroidery. I was really entranced by that beautiful work,” she said.
The 2019 Resort collection offers an assortment of mix and match options with vintage kimono prints and oversized brush-stroke prints on silk crepe, denim, and tech nylon.
“It’s very important for the brand to keep evolving and not just appeal to your mother. Your taste or way of life is different from the generation before you,” Ms. Natori told this writer.
Josie Natori 2
Keyhole Knotted Top in Tulip Poppy

“As a brand, you must grow and expand and be relevant. It’s a great challenge. I want both mother and daughter, and grandchild to be liking to wear Natori,” she said of the brand’s expansion to cater to a younger market.
As a brand, Natori’s fashion philosophy is to create timeless designs that women want.
“First of all, nobody needs anything. We have a reason for [wanting] it. It has to be something to seduce them to buy,” Ms. Natori said, adding that it is important to consider new prints, shapes, and colors. “There is so much out there today. We work very hard for our customers to have a reason to want it.
“It’s very important to have the sense of comfort. You don’t have to sacrifice comfort for beauty. It’s artful and it has to be of quality. And I believe in timelessness. You should be able to wear it for many years,” noting that she has clients who have been wearing her designs for about 20 to 30 years.
“We’ve been around for 41 years and I think that’s because we’re consistent in quality and things that women want. Hopefully, we would keep doing it,” she said.
Josie Natori is exclusively available at Rustan’s Makati, Rustan’s Shangri-la, and Rustan’s Cebu. For more information visit, www.natori.com. — Michelle Anne P. Soliman

Local, foreign locators keen on PNOC property

STATE-LED Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC) has received interest from local and foreign companies to locate in two of its properties in Batangas, with four entities already in the application process of reserving lots in the industrial parks, company officials said.
“We are coming up with one [industrial park] in Bauan, one in Limay, kaya excited ako doon (that’s why I’m excited there),” PNOC President and Chief Executive Officer Reuben S. Lista told reporters last week.
PNOC is leasing out 90 hectares in Limay, and another 24 hectares in Bauan, both in Batangas. It is requiring a P200,000 application fee for locators that intend to build their projects in the area.
Mr. Lista said the first entity the pays the application fee is given priority on the property. The two properties are among the PNOC landholdings that its top official expects to provide a regular stream of revenues in the near term, he added.
Efren A. Legaspi, PNOC department head of estate management, placed the rental value at the Limay property at P220 per square meter. At 10,000 square meters to a hectare, the 90-hectare property could bring in rent of around P198 million.
He said four entities are keen on locating their businesses in Limay. He declined to disclose their identity because of a non-disclosure agreement, but said they are into liquefied natural gas (LNG) power plant, micro-refinery, petrochemicals and solar energy development.
Of the four, three are foreign and one is a local company with foreign partners, he added.
“What they sent is letters of interest. We treat that as part of application process for us to release certain information for them to conduct their study. They have to pay the application fee if they want to reserve,” he said.
For the Bauan property, PNOC has signed a memorandum of agreement with a Thai company to explore possible partnerships, Mr. Legaspi said.
“They are doing their study now. Aside from them meron pang iba (there are others),” he said, without identifying the interested parties. He said the others are either interested in using the property as a grains terminal or a container yard.
He said the possible partnership is for a depot for petroleum products. At the very least, PNOC would be the lessor, or it could beyond that arrangement and use the property as equity in a joint venture, he said.
Asked when PNOC expects the Bauan property to result in a partnership, he said: “By next year, late next year.” — Victor V. Saulon

Fashion turns to mapping tech for supply chains

NO ONE dies for fashion in greater numbers than, it turns out, the trees. More than 150 million are cleared every year, shipped around the world, then pulped and processed into viscose — a.k.a. rayon, the cheap, silk-ish fabric most mass-market brands can’t survive without.
For the growing number of apparel companies promising an ecologically sounder manufacturing process, this presents a problem. The viscose industry relies on wood from around the world, including from some areas that have been designated as ecologically sensitive. But by the time the pulp becomes rayon (typically, in China), it’s nearly impossible to know whether it originated in American tree farms or Indonesian old-growth forests. Unless someone’s paying attention.
Nonprofit groups such as WWF, Greenpeace and Rainforest Action Network have in-country expertise that has helped businesses align manufacturing practices with environmental commitments, but people are limited in the amount of ground they can cover and the number of hours in a day they can work. So several brands, including Hennes & Mauritz AB, Kering SA, and Marks & Spencer Group Plc, spent the last year helping the Canadian nonprofit Canopy build a Web site that uses satellite imagery and conservation research to identify the forests that scientists say need to be left alone.
Called Forest Mapper, the images can resolve to 30 square meters (320 square feet) in some areas. It shows 36 layers of data — 25 directly about forests — with others covering threatened species habitats and carbon locked away in trees and soil. The maps are based on work done by World Resources Institute and its real-time deforestation tracker, Global Forest Watch, Forest Stewardship Council, International Union for Conservation of Nature and WWF.
The viscose supply chain was largely opaque until the last few years, when companies started asking questions and Canopy began auditing pulp facilities and mills. On-the-ground research, complemented by the mapping tool, is just now giving consumer companies and non-governmental organizations enough information to either prune undesirable supplies from the business or challenge suppliers to reform their practices.
Almost 50 fashion, paper, and publishing companies endorsed the tool as a way to improve their analysis of where supply chains wind through ecosystems that are rare, nearly destroyed by people, or important for maintaining biodiversity. Kimberly-Clark Corp., for example, is planning to overlay its supply chain onto the Forest Mapper, according to Lisa Morden, vice-president for safety and sustainability. “The data is very rich and has a lot of depth to it, so it gives us some more science-based approaches to how we think about our supply chain,” she said.
Canopy Executive Director Nicole Rycroft founded the organization to amplify the influence companies have over their suppliers. Funded by philanthropy and foundations, Canopy conducts supply-chain audits for companies to help them identify when they’re doing business in places they may not want to. More than 160 companies have pledged to eliminate materials from endangered forests; about 750 company “partners” have worked with the group on purchasing practices in nearly two decades. Fashion companies helped pay for third-party expenses incurred during the mapping project for data expertise and app-development — about $70,000. — Bloomberg

Burberry designer’s buzzy ‘Kingdom’ powers demand for looks

NEW BURBERRY Group Plc designer Riccardo Tisci is giving the British luxury-goods maker a boost before his creations are even available in stores.
Wholesale sales of his first collection, called “Kingdom,” have doubled from year-earlier levels in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, Chief Financial Officer Julie Brown said Thursday after the company reported progress on a drive to boost its exclusivity and bolster its financial results. The shares rose as much as 2.4% in early London trading.
Tisci’s hiring earlier this year was a key part of Chief Executive Officer Marco Gobbetti’s turnaround plan. The new team wants to reposition the trenchcoat maker as a high-end luxury player to cash in on Chinese demand that’s lifting French conglomerate LVMH and Gucci owner Kering SA. Even before Tisci’s collection arrives in stores in February, the company has been pushing upmarket items like a £1,590 ($2,090) handbag that cinches closed with a belt, and it says others are on the way.
The new designer’s presence has already put Burberry in the spotlight as he modernized its logo, styled ad campaigns, and staged a hotly anticipated show during London Fashion Week. Tisci has teased customers with limited-edition “drops” — selling $600 sweatshirts in flash sales over Instagram and China’s WeChat. In its half-year financial report, the company cited “social-selling innovation” as a way to generate buzz.
As it seeks digital momentum, Burberry is paring its bricks-and-mortar retail exposure, especially in the US, where it’s dropped some middle-market department stores from its roster in a bid to boost its image and lift prices. The goal is to sell more bags and fashions through its own retail network.
SALES GROW
The plan, initiated by former CEO and design chief Christopher Bailey and accelerated by the new management, is starting to show results. The company reported a 3% increase in comparable retail sales in the first half, in line with analyst estimates, and profit that came in above expectations.
That’s still a far cry from the double-digit gains Louis Vuitton owner LVMH and Kering have been chalking up in recent quarters. Burberry will price its handbags just below those of high-end luxury peers, Gobbetti said in an investor presentation.
At the presentation, CFO Brown sported items from Tisci’s September show, including a silk trench dress with trompe l’oeil painted buttons and a studded leather handbag.
The overhaul will take time, Gobbetti said, because a complete array of Tisci-designed products won’t be in stores until a year from now. Renovating more than 400 stores can’t be done overnight, either. As the company cuts back on its roster of outlets, it will continue to lose business from mid-range department stores, particularly in the US, which used to move heavy volumes of its checkered scarves and beige polos.
Meanwhile luxury companies are keeping a close eye on China, after reports of a crackdown on unauthorized imports hit their shares this autumn. Gobbetti said Burberry hasn’t seen any drop-off recently in that market.
The Tisci-led revamp is “a multi season project,” the CEO said. “We do believe there is space for us.” — Bloomberg

Lazada PHL sees record sales from 11.11 event

By Denise A. Valdez
Reporter
LAZADA Philippines expects sales from its annual Nov. 11 shopping event on Sunday to double the previous year’s figure, as budget-conscious Filipino consumers flocked to the website to avail of massive discounts on a wide array of products ranging from gadgets to diapers.
“We doubled the target from last year for 11.11 (as the 24-hour shopping event is commonly known),” Lazada Philippines Chief Executive Officer for Logistics and Operations Juan Pavez Spencer told reporters, as he gave a tour of the company’s 54,000-square meter warehouse in Laguna on Sunday.
Nov. 11 is Lazada’s busiest day, as its 11.11 shopping festival is held throughout Southeast Asia. Lazada’s parent company and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. had started the Singles’ Day or 11.11 event in China.
“During the 24 hours we have the biggest traffic in our platform… So we have been expecting (to make profit) in only one day what we usually do in half a month. That’s 15 times (more) than a regular day’s sale that we are expecting only in one day,” Mr. Pavez said.
As of 9 a.m. on Sunday, Mr. Pavez said Lazada Philippines already reached 60% of its daily sales target. He declined to give specific figures, but noted that 2017’s 11.11 event had doubled the previous year’s sales figures.
“We usually do a lot of planning very early in the year… In the Philippines, 11.11 is a Christmas sale. It’s very important to keep this in mind. It means that 11.11… it’s a big sale season,” he said.
Lazada Philippines currently has more than 28 million monthly site visits, and over 30,000 listed sellers.
During the 11.11 sale, Mr. Pavez said customers can avail of more than 50 million deals during the 24-hour period, with some products at 99% off.
Electronic devices, beauty products, fashion items and mother-and-babies products are among the top sellers in the site.
“In the Philippines, 11.11 ushers in the gift-giving season, as more Filipinos take advantage of the exciting deals and discounts to tick off their Christmas shopping lists,” Lazada Philippines Chief Executive Officer Raymund N. Alimurung said in a statement.
Mr. Pavez noted the platform’s cash on delivery service is part of efforts to reach more customers in the country. Cash on delivery is the preferred mode of payment for most of its users.
“What we saw in the Philippine business as an opportunity is most of the countries in Southeast Asia are cash-based economies. So there’s a lot of people which are unbanked… To solve this issue, we developed cash on delivery in order to make this accessible to all the potential customers in the Philippines,” he said.

Photo exhibit highlights SSI’s ongoing 30th anniversary celebration

FOR 30 years now, the SSI (Stores Specialists Inc.) Group has changed the retail landscape of the Philippine by bringing in some of the world’s most influential brands to the Philippines: think Gucci, Prada, Calvin Klein, and Alexander McQueen, among many, many, others.
The group celebrates its 30th anniversary this year with a campaign launched in June called The Curated Life, which would feature an e-commerce platform called ssilife.com.ph, as well as a mobile app called My SSI Life, which would allow users to earn points while shopping, as well as give alerts to the user for trends, promos, and perks.
Last week, SSI threw a party to launch its latest project, a photo exhibit called Passion Forward featuring personalities photographed by Marc Nicdao, Kai Huang, Cyrus Panganiban, Kyla Olives, and director Paul Soriano. The photo exhibit features more than 30 people who have made strides in their own respective fields, from business to fashion; from social enterprise to advocacies. The diverse set of subjects ranges from heiresses Mariana Zobel de Ayala and Paloma Urquicjo Zobel to chefs JP Anglo and Bruce Ricketts. Naturally, they’re dressed in items from SSI in their photos. The exhibit is currently on show at the Grand Hyatt Manila.
As for the rest of SSI’s campaign, SSI Group Inc. president Anton Huang told BusinessWorld that the My SSI Life App is “still on track” and will be launched by the end of this month. The launches of the e-commerce platform, meanwhile, are “ongoing as we speak.”
Mr. Huang, meanwhile, talked about SSI’s contribution to changing the retail landscape of the Philippines, much as his grandmother and Rustan’s founder Gliceria Tantoco did. “I think it provided a lot of opportunities for consumers. It helped elevate taste; it provided choice, and provided wonderful experiences.” — Joseph L. Garcia

Mislatel refutes Singson-led group’s allegation over contract breach

MISLATEL Consortium, the government’s declared provisional new major telco player after last week’s bidding, fired back at one of its competitors that sought to invalidate its win through a motion for reconsideration (MR) filed with the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
Mindanao Islamic Telephone Company, Inc. (Mislatel), the franchise holder representing the group of China Telecommunications Corp., Dennis A. Uy’s Udenna Corp. and its subsidiary Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp., on Sunday issued a statement denying the claim of Sear Telecommunications Consortium that it has a live contract with the company.
“[T]he simple fact is that Mislatel has no contract with TierOne. What Mislatel had was a terminated contract with a company called DigiPhil that was meant for small projects… Moreover, the contract was nevertheless terminated on October 5,” it said.
Sear Telecommunications Consortium, led by TierOne Communications International, Inc. and former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis C. Singson’s LCS Group of Companies (Sear-LCS-TierOne), had earlier cited Mislatel’s live contract with a member of its group, DigiPhil Technology, Inc.
The Sear consortium said in its MR that its partner DigiPhil reserves the right to Mislatel’s license as its “sole and exclusive partner,” citing exclusivity terms in their agreement.
But Mislatel distributed to reporters over the weekend a copy of the contract and a notice of termination of said contract. In the termination letter, Mislatel said it wants to end its deal with the company as its agreement doesn’t cover participation in the government’s third telco bidding.
“[I]t was never the intention nor the purpose of Mislatel to include the bid for the third telco as part of the agreement with DigiPhil,” Mislatel said in an Oct. 5 letter to the DigiPhil.
Although the signed contract stated “the parties are… contemplating in the future to include the provision of cellular mobile telephony…,” Mislatel said in its notice of contract termination the deal never mentioned participation in the third telco bidding specifically, thus to interpret “other authorizations” in the contract as such is a “fraudulent misrepresentation.”
Sear-LCS-TierOne said its agreement with Mislatel “included joining the NTC’s (new major player) selection process.” It is requesting the NTC to conduct a new bidding because of a “failure” in the process brought by Mislatel’s “fraudulent and obstructive practice.”
The Sear consortium was disqualified in last week’s auction for lack of a “participation security” worth P700 million. The bidding’s selection committee has three days to review the company’s MR.
Aside from Sear-LCS-TierOne, the selection committee is also set to review the MR of the other failed bidder, Philippine Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (PT&T), which was disqualified for lack of an NTC certification proving its 10-year experience as a telco provider in a national scale.
Should the selection committee grant any of the two group’s petitions and proceed to review their submissions, the commitments of Mislatel Consortium may be challenged, which won the bidding with 456.80 out of 500 points.
At stake for whoever will emerge successful by the end of the whole process is a certificate of public convenience and necessity (CPCN) valid for 15 years or the length of the franchise of a bidder, whichever is shorter; and radio frequency bands of 700 megahertz (MHz), 2100 MHz, 2000 MHz, 2.5 gigahertz (GHz), 3.3 GHz and 3.5 GHz.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) earlier promised to have the third telco player before Christmas. — Denise A. Valdez

Uniqlo launches collaboration with designer Alexander Wang


JAPANESE RETAILER Uniqlo has launched its latest collection of HEATTECH underwear, this time done in collaboration with American fashion designer Alexander Wang.
According to the Uniqlo Web site, the “new series of HEATTECH is designed to be worn as an inner layer or simply worn on its own for enduring cold weather support.”
The collection includes pieces for men and women which come in neutrals — white, black, nude, and gray — and neon green. The women’s pieces include bras, shorts, leggings, body suits, tank tops, and long sleeved shirts; the men’s pieces include briefs, boxer briefs, crew neck shirts, tank tops, and tights.
“I pushed the boundaries a lot,” the designer told Singapore’s The Straits Times about the deceptively simple collection, which was released worldwide on Nov. 9. “There are a lot of little twists, like taking the rib knit and cutting it on the bias, or making certain jerseys a little drier and not too slick so it didn’t have that super technical feeling that you get when wearing sportswear. It feels like wearing your favorite T-shirt.”
Available at the SM Megamall branch and flagship store in Glorietta 5 are the men’s ribbed tank top, and ribbed briefs and the women’s ribbed sleeveless top, ribbed sleeveless body suit, and long sleeved extra warm body suit. Other pieces in the collection are available in all stores.
For information visit, www.uniqlo.com/alexanderwang18fw/ph/. — MAPS

Removing developers’ incentives may worsen housing backlog, says think tank

THINK TANK Center for Housing and Independent Research Synergies (CHAIRS) flagged the proposed removal of incentives for developers of socialized housing under the second package of the tax reform bill, saying this could worsen the housing backlog in the country.
In a statement issued over the weekend, CHAIRS President Christopher Ryan T. Tan said mass housing developers are protesting the planned repeal of compensatory incentives should the Tax Reform for Attracting Better and High-quality Opportunities (TRABAHO) bill be enacted.
Republic Act No. 7279, otherwise known as the Urban Development and Housing Act, states that socialized housing projects will be exempted from paying project-related income taxes, capital gains tax on raw lands used for the project, value-added tax for the project contractor, transfer tax for both raw completed projects, and donor’s tax for lands donated for socialized housing projects.
The law further provides that developers must “develop an area for socialized housing equivalent to at least 15% of the total subdivision area or subdivision project cost and at least 5% of condominium area of project cost, at the option of the developer.”
“Removing this incentive will effectively paralyze private sector participation housing production,” Mr. Tan said in a statement.
He added that the current incentives granted to developers are only “compensatory” for doing a “missionary activity,” and should therefore be distinguished from investment incentives to be lumped under the Strategic Investments Priorities Plan.
Mr. Tan also noted provisions under the 1987 Constitution, which mandates the state to “undertake with the private sector a continuing program of urban land reform and housing which shall make available at affordable cost decent housing to the underprivileged and homeless.”
“Removing such compensatory incentives to socialized housing, will not only be unconstitutional, but will also reduce the balanced housing requirements to an “unjust, oppressive, and confiscatory exercise of police power,” Mr. Tan said.
With this, developers would be discouraged from developing projects for the socialized market, causing the housing problem in the country to swell.
The CHAIRS executive cited a 2016 study by the University of Asia and the Pacific stating that the Philippines would need 12.3-million housing units by 2030, from an estimated backlog of 6.7 million from 2001 to 2015 plus a projected housing demand of 5.6 million from 2016 to 2030.
CHAIRS Executive Director Santiago F. Ducay further criticized the removal of exemptions for the Home Development Mutual Fund (PAG-IBIG) from taxes, fees, and charges, which could potentially affect the affordability of housing projects for lower income groups.
“Current savings from Pag-IBIG’s tax exemption are channeled to providing interest subsidy to enable the lending for housing acquisition at a low of three percent for socialized housing,” Mr. Ducay said. — Arra B. Francia

Kiehl’s goes beyond brick and mortar and enters the online shopping arena

By Zsarlene B. Chua
Reporter
AMERICAN SKINCARE brand, Kiehl’s has finally ventured into the realm of Philippine online shopping as the brand made its debut on the online beauty portal, BeautyMNL on Nov. 9.
“What has really helped us stay relevant and modern in the business landscape today is that Kiehl’s has always moved with the times. The pitfall of any brand is staying stagnant and not reaching out to new customers,” Joan Hwang, Kiehl’s Philippines product manager told BusinessWorld in an e-mail interview on Nov. 5.
She added that while the brand is present in 14 locations in Metro Manila in Cebu, they noticed “a huge potential for a new customer base outside of the Metro Manila and Cebu” in places like Cagayan de Oro and Ilocos and that’s what prompted it to sell its products online through BeautyMNL which has a “nationwide reach.”
BeautyMNL is arguably one of the biggest online beauty retailers in the country as it is said to offer “more than 800 brands and 15,000 products,” according to its website.
“As with all distribution channels, we select our product offering based on the profile of the customers in the specific channel. In BeautyMNL, we will be carrying a more curated selection specific for the online shopper which are our customer favorites, Kiehl’s cult classics, and more size options,” Ms. Hwang said.
A cursory inspection on Kiehl’s page on the site showed it is currently offering more than 50 products from its catalog and the spread includes best-sellers like the Midnight Recovery Concentrate and includes the newly launched Ginger Leaf & Hibiscus Firming Mask.
Despite the availability of online shops, Kiehl’s took its time before going online and Ms. Hwang said it was due to the brand’s complimentary consultation service and as such, it needs the customers to be physically inside a store for Kiehl’s staff to recommend products tailored for their skin type and concern.
“In the past, we have always believed that in order to provide the most personalized service, the customer has to be present physically in the store for a consultation. But nowadays, with the internet at our fingertips, customers have become more educated — researching products before going to the store or purchasing them online,” she explained.
And now that they are online, Ms. Hwang is confident that this move will prove successful as Kiehl’s goal is “for our e-commerce business to be as large as our flagship store in the Philippines, Greenbelt 5.”

Holiday Inn opens in Baguio City

THE InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) recently opened a Holiday Inn in Baguio City.
In statement, IHG said the hotel will have 185 guest rooms, a ballroom for 600 guests, function rooms, meeting rooms, 24-hour gym, and dining services like Lamisaan Dining and Bar, and Apo Lounge & Bar.
Holiday Inn Baguio City Centre is located along Legarda Road. It offers free shuttle services to key destinations.
“We are always searching for new ways to better cater to our clientele, this time offering the IHG standards and incorporating them within the Cordillera culture. Our goal is to provide guests with a complete range of services when they check in at the Holiday Inn,” Joanne Acott, general manager of Holiday Inn Baguio City Centre, said in a statement.
The eight-storey hotel is the latest addition to Baguio City, as it gears up for the peak season in December. In 2017, Baguio City saw 1.7-million tourist arrivals, 21% higher than the 1.4-million tourist arrivals a year ago.
Holiday Inn Baguio City Centre is the city’s first major international hotel chain after Hyatt Terraces Baguio Hotel, which was destroyed during the 1990 Luzon earthquake. — Vincent Mariel P. Galang

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