Trader succeeds in rebuilding family business from ashes
IT rose from the ashes.
Literally speaking,
BCT Sports World Enterprise was born after the family business – Sports Craft Sales – which was running since 1972 caught fire and stopped operations in 1995.
Becky C. Tan, from whose initials the sporting goods retail store got its name, decided not to let a fire stop her from picking up the pieces and continue the family business.
“Starting up BCT was no longer difficult because we have already built relationships with our suppliers from our former business. The “restart” capital was not a problem then as most of them (sporting goods) (suppliers) allowed us credits for the products that we displayed in our new store,” said Tan.
Tan then opened a small shop in Space E. Osmeña Building located along Pelaez Street corner Colon Street in Cebu City.
It’s a 120 square meter two-storey space which Tan used for her shop in the first level and a storage area in the second level.
Banking on the credibility and good relationship they had already established with their customers, BCT Sports World Enterprise started smoothly carrying product lines all related to sports.
“It can be a gear, for awards as we also have all kinds of trophies and medal. We carry almost anything related to sports here from the more affordable brands to the higher end premium brands,” said Tan.
From only about three people to help them out in 1995, Tan now has about six people to help them in the shop which only shows the bigger transactions they do daily.
Aside from sports gears, they also sell gym equipment and musical instruments that one can simply order from them.
“For the gym equipment, we usually encourage our clients to just order them through our brochures and we’ll ship it to them the soonest possible. We cannot store them here because now we have a limited space,” said Tan.
Musical instruments like drum sets, lyres and more are also available at Tan’s store.
Her market now includes walk-in clients, companies, government schools and organizations.
“We have clients from other places outside of Cebu as well like government schools in Leyte, Bohol, Negros and many other places. They usually come here to buy their needed gears,” she said.
Sports gears offered at the store include baseball bats, balls for soccer, tennis, volleyball, and basketball. They also have tennis rackets, badminton rackets, shuttlecocks, diving and snorkeling gears, sports shoes
“We are the exclusive accredited distributor of Rawlings brand of softball gears like gloves and bats,” said Tan.
Because of the increasing number of clients who have different needs for products and their quantity, she now offers wholesale prices to clients.
“For those who also buy for personal use, they can find many products here that are of good quality and are priced competitively. We can do that because we get directly from the manufacturers,” said Tan.
Tan also attributed the increasing trend of having a healthy lifestyle as being beneficial to sporting goods shops.
“We get a lot of people now buying sports products especially training and running shoes because of the many runs that are organized here. That’s helpful especially for businesses like ours,” said Tan.
Since the market has expanded, Tan said that they are now looking at ways they can expand.
“We are studying expansion plans. Perhaps we will open a branch outside of Cebu in Visayas and Mindanao to tap other markets there,” said Tan.
According to Tan, the decision to build on what was left of the burnt business was all worth it.
Had they gave in to discouragement, they wouldn’t have seen BCT Sports World Ent. grow and reap success for 17 years and continue to grow especially now that sports is becoming a part of every person’s life. /Aileen Garcia-Yap, Reporter
