Last Saturday, we held the second Regional Retail Conference of the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) Cebu Chapter at the Park Lane Hotel. Our key note speaker was the owner of Toby’s Sports and Hobbies, Mr. Roberto Claudio. I would like to share his story which he recounted to us during the conference.

Mr. Claudio or “Bobby” is the founder of Toby’s, which was named after his son. He used to occupy a management position at Philippine Refining Company, the predecessor of Unilever. He was also a very active member of the Manila Jaycees. In 1977, Manila was to be the host of the Jaycees World Conference and Bobby was a active member of the international promotions team. He was given the opportunity to travel all over the world free to promote the conference, unfortunately and eventually at the expense of his job. Faced with an ultimatum, he resigned his job to continue to promote the Jaycees. He told us, “Without a job, I now began my career as an entrepreneur.”

Bobby opened his first store named , “Toby’s Forms and Shapes” in a 27 sq. m. space at the newly constructed Virra Mall in Greenhills. When he was asked what the name meant, he replied, “So it could take any form or any shape, I did not know what I was doing then.” He had a chance to buy 12 boxes of toys from Zamboanga which became his first inventory. The store became the office, and warehouse at the same time. He said,” We opened our first store in 1978, our total sales for the first three months was Php3,000, not a good sign for a lasting legacy.”

He continued, “ a few months after opening, Greenhills Shopping Center announced that it was bringing in Mickey Mouse characters for the first time in the Philippines. I told them that I could make shirts, caps, apparels, etc but I was told that I could not do that since there were already licensees in the Philippines.” Undaunted he went back and negotiated a exclusive merchandising deal with Greenhills Management forcing all licensees to deal with him. It was a huge success. Turning initial forecast of 1,000 pieces to runaway sales of 50,000 pieces up to December. He told me, “This gave us the financial resources to get us started.”

“After Christmas, the toy business took a dive.”, he recounted, “we could not survive because we were relying solely on the Mickey Mouse promo which had already ended.” They were able to survive by identifying and capitalizing on the skateboard craze that was beginning to be popular. They launched the first skateboard competition in the Philippines.

But what really put Toby’s on the map was when they brought in the first electronic racquet stringing machine in the Philippines. Bobby added, “my brother and me would be manning the stringing machine ourselves, for me, it was a strong message of our hands on management. In 1980, we successfully introduced darts, which strengthened our position in the sports retailing market.”

Today, Toby’s is recognized as one of the “Philippines Greatest Brands.” It has won awards for being “Outstanding Filipino Retailer in the medium category “ from the Philippine Retailers Association. It has also been named as “15 best homegrown franchises” by Entrepreneur Magazine. Toby’s has 33 stores of which 17 are franchises.

Bobby encourages people by saying, “ We did not start with something big, we had very little capital and was unsure of our direction in a highly competitive environment. But we forged on.” He concluded, “Retailing is selling a service, the products we sell is only incidental to our business….therefore our role is to serve.”

Business in any form and in any shape, Toby’s has shown us that the road to fitness begins from the heart. Let’s follow the examples of these ordinary individuals as they strive to make a difference. Each week, lets all get together and share knowledge, stories, experiences, information, all for the sole purpose of getting One Step Up.

For comments, suggestions or stories that you want to share, email me atstirspecialist@gmail.com