Have a strong ‘why’ and the ‘how’ will come: Pet Lovers Centre MD Ng Whye Hoe

It wasn’t doing well, but she asked me if I was keen to take over. I’ve always wanted to run the business. I knew my dad was always very passionate about the business, but he passed away at a very young age. I was quite sentimental about the business I must say. So I decided to take over the business together with my classmate who was with me in the import-export business and we took off. My brothers joined me later.

Bharati:  You said your uncle had a very different way of managing the business. What was wrong with the way he managed it?

Ng: I guess the management then took it as a hobby business. I think the price strategy wasn’t really right and the product range wasn’t really right. I knew that if we did this correctly, if we put our heart and soul into the business, it would turn around eventually. The first thing is to know what your customers may want and to provide it in a value-for-money way.

OTHERS THOUGHT WE WOULD FAIL

Bharati: What specific challenges did you face when you first started out and how did you turn those around?

Ng: There were many challenges. I think the first was to try to get the pricing and the product range correct. When I took over, we still had consignment stores with Yaohan in the early years, but as you know, Yaohan went bankrupt. Months after I took over, they went bankrupt and I was down easily another $80-100,000. At that age – I was about 22 or 23 – it was really quite a shocker, but once you focus your mind on the bigger picture of what you want to do, it doesn’t matter. I think that motivated at least my partner and me. We knew that we had a bigger vision and planned to be in many shopping malls and to make it a franchisable business; so we didn’t let that failure affect us. The strategy for us at that point in time was to expand and have more stores within the malls. Because we understand the concept of economies of scale, and we thought there were no other pet shops penetrating the malls. So that was one of our key strategies.

We just had to make sure we got the first store right. The first store was Shaw Centre at that point of time. We had to make sure everything was right there in terms of merchandise, everything. Once we got the concept right, we could duplicate it. It was very encouraging when I opened my first branch store and that was in Parkway Parade. I remembered that even before we opened the store, there was a small queue.

After we opened up the store, we were still replenishing stocks. It was a small store. It was only about 260 square feet, but it was brave because rentals then were very high and the suppliers also were not sure if we would succeed.

Bharati: What made you think you would succeed when other people didn’t think so?

Ng: It was the first store at Shaw Centre. When we got that right, we had the confidence. I would say that once you start to scale up, you have better traffic flow in that area, the law of averages would work with us. So the possibility to succeed was definitely there.

Bharati: I understand you’ve played all sorts of roles in your business. You have been a store assistant, a deliveryman, a cashier. What has that experience taught you?

Ng: It has taught me that if you want to start a business, you’ve got to be an all-rounder. You’ve got to know the business inside out. I think that experience from being a delivery driver all the way to a cashier really made me understand the business and what was required each step of the way to make it work better, to streamline processes, what type of software we might need to make it happen, to provide better service.

BUSINESSES HAVE TO BE “360”

Bharati: A lot of people are bemoaning the state of the retail industry nowadays especially with online shopping becoming increasingly popular. You have an online shopping platform as well, but you are also opening up a lot of brick-and-mortar stores, not just in Singapore, but outside of Singapore as well. Why is the brick-and-mortar model still working for you?

Ng: I think currently we are beginning to see the challenges and “threat” of online stores. In the past 10 years, we have been focusing on the brick-and-mortar stores. We have an online store, but the online store is not up to mark in terms of best practices. The user experience can improved. So recently, for at least the last one year, we have been working on it. We are revamping the whole website to make sure that we are in line with best practices. We have expert advice coming in. But the way forward for us is to be omni-channel, not just focusing on the brick-and- mortar, not just on the online stores. You’ve got to be 360, because that helps in the customer experience.

Bharati: Why is the brick-and-mortar model still so important though. If you made your online channels better, people might just say: I don’t need to go to the store anymore.

Ng: I definitely feel that brick-and-mortar will still be relevant, because looking at our current stores now we are focused more on products and accessories, but what we are trying to do is to have more experiential customer service for our customers. It could be click-and-collect. At the brick-and-mortar stores we could increase the “live” animal range. We also have pet care consultants.

Bharati: But if customers are happy shopping online for pet supplies – which is the core of your business – why bother investing in the brick-and-mortar set up?

Ng: I still think Singaporeans like going to the malls and buying things at the stores if you make it worth their while. Shopping is like a sport to many Singaporeans because of the geographical distance. It’s still very relevant in my industry at this point in time.

SETTING THE TONE FOR COMMERCIAL RENTS

Bharati: There are a lot of challenges in today’s economy for Singaporean businesses. What do you see as the most pressing ones?

Ng: I think it would be the rentals and it’s also the manpower aspects of it. And lastly, of course, digitisation.

Bharati: Let’s talk about manpower first.

Ng: Definitely they are challenges because when it comes to manpower, we’ve got to change our system, our processes and how we work. What we do in terms of manpower is that we send our guys for training, and we use technology to assist us as much as possible. In terms of IT, we streamline our processes. Our guys are using iPads. Even when it comes to the warehouse, we try to optimise the workflow as much as possible. We try to use the online website to actually assist us. We have live chats just to make things seamless and minimise the necessity for manpower as much as possible.

Bharati: But you have a lot of foreign staff, don’t you?

Ng: We are in line with the Government’s quotas. But I think it’s got to be loosened slowly if the birth rates don’t improve.

Bharati: Sure, that is a long-term challenge. But why is it so hard to get Singaporeans to work for you?

Ng: It used to be harder. But I think things are slowly changing. Last time, people would shun jobs on the retail side, but now this is changing because we don’t have a choice when it comes to being manpower lean and more productive. Everybody has to take up different roles at the same time. Once you are more productive and your pay is higher, I think people can actually be a little more appreciative of what they do. It’s more fulfilling. It’s more rewarding, so I think that helps.

Bharati: You mentioned rentals as well. After Budget 2017 was announced, some businesses said they had hoped the Government would do more when it comes to providing rental relief for businesses. Do you agree?

Ng: Yes and no. When it comes to the rentals too much Government assistance may not be a good thing. Because businesses, as much as possible, should try to work things out among themselves as much as possible. A bit of Government assistance is good but it cannot be a reliance kind of attitude. I think what the Government can do is to actually set certain precedents. For warehouses in JTC, for hawkers and so on, take it easy on the rentals, I think that would set a certain precedent for rest of the landlords and the malls. The Government is doing it already, but it needs to do even more.

Bharati: Do you believe the landlords and the malls would really respond to something like that?

Ng: I guess in time to come they would, because the vacancy rate in the malls now is close to 8 to 9 per cent. I think the malls are beginning to realise the threat of online shopping, and that at the same time, the rentals have really got to soften, because if not, it’s going to be very trying for retailers.

HAVING A STRONG “WHY”

Bharati: How are you coping?

Ng: We have our challenges, but at this point of time, we are still okay because we know that we have to make our stores more experiential and we’ve improved on the customer service and so on.

We’ve got to innovate. “Innovation” is a very big word.

A lot of people think that you can do something really different, but I think as long as you do little things to make customers happy, it works. So if we have better ways of tracking stock and can answer a customer’s query immediately, that’s innovation in itself. As far as company culture is concerned, we’ve got to be very open to suggestions; as far as the team is concerned, not to shoot down their ideas too quickly. Listen with an open mind. Whatever ideas they give, maybe you can ask them questions, and not so much of gunning them down immediately. I don’t believe in that. I believe that in order to have innovation, everyone needs to have relaxed, open kind of attitude, where the leaders themselves need to set an example.

Bharati: Okay, so what do you do when you an employee gives you an idea that sounds really stupid at first?

Ng: I would tell them it’s a very interesting idea because you never know, a wrong idea today may be a right idea tomorrow.

At the end of the day, when it comes to innovation and creativity it’s got to do with exposure. So, what I do is travel overseas. For example when it came to Pet Safari for instance, I saw what the US and European stores had done – an all-in-one pet store. After our sixth or seventh pet store, I told myself, I have to do something different. I have to get ideas overseas. Nowadays with the Internet, you get a lot more exposure. These are the things that would help in the creativity part of it. Look at their ideas and build on them for your own market.

I strongly believe that if you have a strong enough “why” to do something, the “how” will automatically come. Especially in today’s era when information is free flowing, if you are hungry enough and you really want to know or to get something done, you can.

MAKE IT WORK IN SINGAPORE BEFORE YOU GO OVERSEAS

Bharati: You are continuing your expansion overseas. You have said in previous interviews that the key to internationalisation is to first make sure you are strong in your homebase, that means in Singapore. But some other businessmen see internationalisation as a way to escape their bad business record here. In other words, if you don’t succeed here, go overseas.

Ng: I don’t agree, because of my experience. My brother came in when we had about 9 stores. When he came in, we were having a different set of challenges when we stepped out and went to Malaysia. We had challenges in Singapore but we also had challenges in Malaysia. We went through very tough times. Sales were slow and we had to innovate in both places. At that time, there were instances when both of us sat down and asked: “How are we going to turn this around?”

The moral of the story is make sure you have a strong footing in your backyard first before you go to other people’s backyard. We needed to focus on one country at a time. We had to make sure everything is stable. Systems, processes, should all be there. Once things improved here, we put our focus back on Malaysia again.

Bharati: What was the problem at that time? Why weren’t things working out?

Ng: I guess we were doing too many things at the same time. We should have slowly focused on each part of the business. From the merchandise, the service, how are we going to display the product, the systems, the processes – all have got to be laid down, because from the first to the ninth store, how I managed the business at that point of time was “monkey see, monkey do”. From the tenth store onwards, you have to have proper systems, processes, guidelines. The way of doing business before just didn’t work for a larger operation. My brother came in and really helped me in that area so I could really focused on growth and expansion.

Take a look at our software for instance. Up to the first nine stores, the vendor that actually helped us said: “You actually told us that you wanted a bike, but now you are telling me you want a car.”

So I think the software is so important, because once you get your point of sale correct, then definitely the system is able to support our growth. That is just one example.

There are cases where the business model may not be right for Singapore, but it may be right overseas. But you’ve still got to make sure the systems, the processes are correct and right before you duplicate that elsewhere or tweak it for a different market.

THE YOUNG SHOULDN’T ALWAYS EXPECT WORK TO BE FUN

Bharati: What do you think is preventing some businesses here from moving ahead despite Government assistance in the areas of productivity, technology adoption, internationalisation?

Ng: I think it could be that they are a bit overwhelmed. But I am sure with the assistance that SPRING provides, if they take one step forward and open themselves up to the opportunities, they can make it. I think in one way or another it can actually help, because it did actually help us, and if you are really faced with a situation where you had no choice, out of desperation, you would think of a way.

Generally, sometimes when people come out and do a business, they get too comfortable after a while and they are not as hungry. I’ve got young people coming to work for us in the stores. Some of them work for two days. After that, they resign and they don’t even come down to collect their pay. They may be staying with their parents. They don’t have to pay the rental and so on. We have foreigners working with us. They have to pay the rentals so they don’t have much of a choice and they are hungry to learn. Some of the Singaporean workers are turned off because they don’t expect work to be work. They expect work to be fun. Let’s face it, I mean work can be fun, but when you start off, you’ve got to go beyond your comfort zone. You’ve got to start work at 10am. Some young people these days wake up at 11 or 12. When they don’t work, their parents will give them money. Yet some of these parents would complain: why are my kids like that?

Bharati: How do you think this type of culture can change in a country that is generally quite comfortable for most people?

Ng: I think it comes down to parenting at the end of the day. We’ve got to let our kids know that when it comes to discipline, when it comes to work, life is not a bed of roses. You’ve really got to work hard to attain the kind of success that you want.

Bharati: What do you think instilled that value in you?

Ng: I think at that point of time I didn’t really have a choice, because the business was already down, but I must say that my parents, my mom at that point of time was very supportive. My brothers were supportive. They helped in whatever way they could. My uncles, who were shareholders of the business, they were successful, they are successful business people, they gave me a lot of advice and encouraged me along the way. So I am very grateful for that.

DO PROFITS TRUMP ANIMAL WELFARE?

Bharati: You have declared before that you are an animal lover. You also set up the Pet Lovers Foundation which is a non-profit entity through which you support animal welfare organisations and animal shelters in Singapore. But in spite of all of this, you, for many years have been selling live pets in your stores. You sell small animals and you have tenants who sell dogs.  Why do that when there are so many animals in animal shelters without homes and waiting to be adopted?

Ng: We advocate adoption as well, but there is always this group of people who would rather not adopt and they want to buy. We are just catering to both ends of demand. We see this as a matter of rightful and personal choice, a choice that we respect, just as we respect those who rightfully and personally prefer to adopt. Hence, our desire to respect all, to love all, and to serve all.

Bharati: But as an animal lover, why continue to do something that is considered a travesty by some animal welfare organisations. Even if you get your pets from responsible breeders, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in the US believes that as long as dogs, and cats, and other animals are dying in animal shelters, no breeding can be considered responsible. Why continue to fuel this business by selling live pets in your stores?

Ng: I guess at the end of the day we’ve got to strike the balance between the two. For us, we do whatever we can. We always advocate adoption first. We let the customers know that there are options. Even for children, who come to us and say, the hamster is very cute, I want to buy the hamster now, my pet care consultants in the store actually ask them questions and make sure that the parents are around to make sure that they are committed to look after the pets at that point of time and not (do it) out of impulse buying.

Bharati: Have you turned away customers?

Ng: Yes, of course we do. Of course we have done that. A lot of children will say “so cute!” then they pull their mummy and daddy to take a look. My people will tell them: A pet is a lifetime commitment. It’s not a one-time thing. It’s not a product.

Bharati: Why not take a clear stance? You can make money by selling pet supplies, pet grooming services. Why continue to sell live pets?

Ng: I guess, probably, you could be right. In time to come, we may actually do that. But we just feel that at this point in time, we are just not ready from a business standpoint to completely just say look, we don’t sell any live animals at all.

Bharati: Is the monetary imperative so important to you that you are willing to do this, to fuel a business that really doesn’t need to exist at this point?

Ng: I guess there is economics behind it. But we really have got to manage this in such a way, whereby people are actually responsible when they want to buy a pet or small animal, and not just impulse, and we try to educate them as much as possible and not to turn it into abuse or neglect. I don’t deny that the economics is part of it. The business economics is part of it.

Bharati: Do you not make enough through the other products and services you offer that you have to make money off live animals?

Ng: With live animals and so on, it does complete the experience especially with someone stepping into the store. It does help in terms of the experiential aspects of the business.

Bharati: What do you have to say to people who say it’s unethical, what you do is unethical?

Ng: We are doing whatever way we can. And eventually, we may head towards that direction.

Bharati: The conditions that some of these animals are kept in for hours, even if you are complying with AVA (Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority) guidelines and standards and licensing requirements, seem hardly humane. I have seen large dogs in an enclosure that fits them and they have some room, but surely it can’t be ideal.

Ng: I think the AVA has stepped up quite a fair bit, and I am glad that they did that, all the rules and regulations. Even with the tenants that are with us, what happens is that our pet care consultants within the store, would tell them if the cage is too small for the dog.

Bharati: Any cage is too small.

Ng: Yeah, but every now and then what the providers would do, at least in our stores, is that they would bring them out for walks and so on. And we don’t enclose them the whole day. The fact is that it’s cruel. I think more needs to be done in terms of education, and if the pet stores were to abide by new regulations by AVA, that is the first step. We try to educate customers as much as possible. For example, if the dog is barking too much it could be a call for attention, maybe they need to send to dog for training, they need to spend more time with the dog. We are interested in education.

Bharati: A lot of people say: these pet stores, they are only interested in making money. They don’t really care about animals. You yourself admit that your focus is on the economic imperative.

Ng: But if you actually take a look at what Pet Lovers Foundation has done …

Bharati: But that doesn’t cancel out the potential wrongs that may be occurring on the business side of your company.

Ng: Sometimes it’s hard to please everybody. That’s the fact of life, that’s the fact of life. Sometimes we do what we can. We do give back, and we have raised at least 130 tons of dog food, for animal welfare groups in Singapore. If you talk about the retail value of that, I just did a mental calculation a few days back, that’s close to S$2 million. I think my guys would ask and probe. And that’s why we work very closely with the animal welfare organisations. At some of our stores, we give out prime space to them for animals up for adoption. I am proud to say that we have rehomed no less than 250 dogs.

Bharati: I am not saying you are not helping at all. I am just wondering why the other part still continues.

Ng: I would say economics, and I think this is something we can consider in time to come, but probably not just now.
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