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Sa Sa: Homegrown Beauty

Born and bred in Hong Kong, regionally flourishing cosmetics chain Sa Sa shares its success story with CityLife

Whoever said it was a bad idea for husband and wife to work together clearly hadn’t heard of Eleanor and Simon Kwok. This ultimate power couple defied naysayers by building a cosmetics empire from ground up as partners in both business and life.

 

banila co., a popular Korean cosmetic brand, was made available in Hong Kong for the first time through Sa Sa banila co.

In 1978, after a year of marriage, Eleanor and Simon made a split-second decision to take over a tiny 40-foot cosmetics counter in Causeway Bay. The couple bought the business from a wealthy woman Eleanor was working for.

“We didn’t know a thing about running a business,” Simon said once in an interview. He said that things might have turned out differently if they had had a better grasp of the great risk they were taking. But it’s a good thing they didn’t, because nobody could have predicted that Sa Sa under the Kwoks would grow to what it is today – the largest cosmetics specialty store chain in Asia Pacific (as ranked by KPMG and Euromonitor in 2013).

As of mid-2013, Sa Sa International Holdings was reported to have a market capitalisation of US$2.84 billion and an annual sales revenue of US$988 million.

 

It hasn’t been smooth sailing the whole way for the group, however. When the 1998 Asian financial crisis hit, Hong Kong’s tourism took a nose-dive. Sa Sa, which then heavily relied on business from overseas visitors, suffered. The group quickly redirected its strategy to greater emphasise the local consumer market, and managed to navigate through the crisis.

Another bump in the road for the group was the global financial crisis of 2008. Whereas the international cosmetics chain Sephora (owned by LVMH Group) failed to cope during this period and had to close in 2010, Sa Sa came out even stronger. By increasing its offering of mid to mass priced goods and exercising aggressive costs control, the group was able to record growth despite market adversity

 

Sa Sa Supreme opened last August 2013 at Causeway Bay

Sa Sa is now looking towards the future, and has been experimenting with innovative ideas such as its first lifestyle concept store, which opened last year. “Sa Sa Supreme”, aside from presenting international cosmetic brands, also features professional hair and styling services by AVEDA, nail services by Nail Collection, and a boutique café by caffe HABITU.Being avid fans of horse racing, the Kwoks have also sealed a collaboration between Sa Sa and the Hong Kong Jockey Club for their special event – the “Sa Sa Ladies’ Purse Day” held every November.

Sa Sa was honoured with three accolades from the Hong Kong Retail Management Assocication's "Mystery Shoppers Programme"

Now a publicly listed company with stores in Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, and mainland China, Sa Sa has gone a long way from its shoebox store in the 1970s. Its 270 stores and counters in Asia employ more than 5,000 staff – now how’s that for an effective working relationship?

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