No Brand opens in the Philippines on Friday

Emart will open its first overseas No Brand store in the Philippines on Nov. 22, exporting both its branded products and the store that shares the same name.

The No Brand store, franchised to Robinsons Retail through an agreement signed last year, will open on the second floor of the Robinsons Galleria shopping mall in Ortigas Center near Manila. No Brand has been given a 271-square-meter (2,917-square-feet) space.

No Brand is an Emart label that sells daily necessities and some food items. Around 70 percent of No Brand goods are manufactured by local small enterprises. Although it was started as an in-house line, No Brand has been so successful that stand-alone stores have been opened.

While 70 percent of the products, excluding fresh produce and electronics, available at the store will be No Brand products, the rest will be items that are popular in the Philippines.

“Thanks to the influence of the Korean Wave, the fondness for Korean products is high in the Philippines,” Emart quoted a spokesperson for its partner as saying. “It’s very encouraging to be able to introduce high quality Korean products at a price that is 20 to 70 percent more affordable than the existing Korean products [sold in the Philippines].”

Emart first branched out overseas in 2013, supplying products to Hong Kong supermarket chain ParknShop. It currently operates in 20 countries. Its export sales in 2018 jumped to 41 billion won ($37 million), from 300 million won in 2013.

“No Brand is gaining popularity beyond Korea,” said a spokesperson for Emart in a statement. “On the back of the rise in demand from various countries, [Emart] will invest efforts to globalizing No Brand.”

Traditional retailers in Korea have been branching out overseas as part of a survival strategy to overcome the fierce competition that has intensified in the local market driven by e-commerce operators. Emart’s rival Lotte Mart currently operates businesses in Vietnam and Indonesia.

BY JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]