Aside from successfully steering the steady growth of Luxuri, a chain of multi-brand stores selling high-end fashion items, Alelee Aguilar-Andanar is steering the resort island of Siargao to a new facet. Together with her husband Martin, she heads a non-profit group that sponsors artists the world over to fly to Siargao and plows back part of the sales of their works to fund future visiting artists.
By ALEX Y. VERGARA
Not everyone is cut out to be an entrepreneur. So, it goes without saying that entrepreneurship, much like singing, writing or painting, is a talent. But Alelee Aguilar-Andanar, the better half of broadcast journalist Martin Andanar and the woman behind the Luxuri chain of stores, among other businesses, thinks otherwise.
“I don’t think being an entrepreneur is a talent. Instead, it entails 24/7 work. Your mind is always working. You should also be passionate with what you do, and that passion would fuel you to go on, especially during difficult times,” she says.
On a more personal note, Alelee and Martin, a Siargao native, are also involved in advocacy work dubbed “Siargao Artists in Residence.” In a nutshell, the non-profit endeavor sponsors artists the world over to fly to Siargao to live and imbibe the island life for a month or so. There, the artists are free to draw inspiration from the country’s “surfing capital” that hopefully ends up on their canvases.
Their output is later exhibited and sold at Talyer 15, an art gallery in Pasay City. Part of the proceeds are plowed back into the endeavor to fund future visiting artists. To date, the couple has already hosted three artists from Europe.
“Apart from further promoting the island to tourists through their artworks, the presence of these artists could hopefully create an impact on the people of Siargao, especially on the young. To instill pride in them and open their eyes to various possibilities,” she says.
The third among the four daughters of Imelda “Mel” Aguilar and the late Vergel “Nene” Aguilar, current and former mayors, respectively, of the city of Las Piñas, Alelee thinks that being an entrepreneur entails hard work, pure and simple, coupled with a near-inexhaustible passion for what you do. It also requires endless research, curiosity and an open mind. Still, she admits that she has had to often rely on gut feel in predicting what would click with her target customers.
Three stores and counting
She cites her experience in running Luxuri, which sells imported brand new and pre-loved luxury bags, accessories and apparel, as an example. When sales during a certain week are low, a sleepless Alelee would already be racking her brain thinking of all sorts of strategies to make items move. There have been several times in the past, for instance, when she had to mark down certain items in her two stores by as much as 70 percent just to lure customers in.
“We’re already selling at a loss at such giveaway prices, but we sometimes have to do it, not only to attract customers but also to generate market awareness,” she says.
Some of these potential customers may not even buy an item at all, but the probability of them ending up buying in the future would have drastically increased once you manage to lure them in. There have been countless times as well when they ended up going home happy after purchasing a big-ticket item that they had no intention of buying, after being initially drawn by an ongoing sale.
ike most “non-essential” businesses, Luxuri’s fortunes suffered greatly during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even when the situation started to ease up, business was still slow, as not too many people were in the mood to splurge on bags. Alelee found salvation by quickly offering their regular customers unique and washable face masks.
“It wasn’t as profitable as our regular items, but those face masks tided us over during those dark, difficult days,” she says. “At the same time, they kept Luxuri’s name alive and top of mind among customers during the pandemic.”
A teacher named crisis
The crisis also taught them a host of useful skills, such as online selling, that they hardly paid attention to before. It eventually became second nature to Alelee and her team who, before the pandemic, used to conduct the bulk of Luxuri’s business in person.
“Now, whether online or in person, we’re adept at doing business. We’ve greatly improved on our online and delivery system after coming out of the pandemic,” she says proudly.
Like most stores of its kind, Luxuri offers various deals, including layaway and deferred payment schemes, to make it easier for customers to buy. If you’re not that into luxury fashion, a visit to Luxuri would still be worth your while, especially if you’re looking for ideal gifts.
“When you’re an entrepreneur, nothing is fixed. Nothing is constant. You think of all sorts of strategies and gimmicks along the way. Strategies that were never even taught to you in school,” Alelee, a graduate of Business Management from the De La Salle University, says with a laugh.
“Although I love nice, imported stuff, especially bags, not everything you see in my stores personally appeals to me. To be honest, there are some items on display that I don’t totally understand. But as an entrepreneur, I must widen the net, so to speak, by offering people a wide range of products in the hopes of appealing to more customers.”
Entrepreneurship also involves a great deal of interpersonal relationships. It’s normal, for instance, for people to see Alelee personally manning one of her two stores on any given day of the week. Even though she has trusted teams to do it, she still insists on spending long hours on the sales floor to get to know and eventually establish relationships with her customers.
By talking to them, she not only gets much-needed feedback. She also invariably gets new ideas from them about what brands and types of goods to add to her growing list of merchandise.
Multitasker
Asked, for instance, if she has a window display consultant on standby, she replies, “What consultant? I’m also the one on top of it! If you’re an entrepreneur, you must also be ready to multitask, down to literally carrying objects within the store as you go about arranging and rearranging products.”
Being your own boss may sound swell on paper, but there’s always a price to pay for it in practice. It’s also a different animal compared to running a company owned by, say, a group of stockholders or one of the country’s taipans. Once an entrepreneur’s business venture falters, there’s no one to bail her out. Resignation isn’t even an option. Once the business goes under, she and the handful of employees who depend on her go down with it.
“My number one fear, even up to now, is the possibility of one of my stores closing,” Alelee, who’s also VP for sales and marketing of the Aguilar family-owned real estate company Veraville Homes, shares. “It’s enough to give me sleepless nights.”
Her fears have so far proved unfounded. After opening her first Luxuri store at Commercenter in Alabang in 2015, Alelee eventually opened a second Luxuri store, a smaller one, at Forbes Town Center in Bonifacio Global City. Before the year ends, she will be opening her third Luxuri outlet at Parqal Mall in Aseana City, Parañaque.
“People have been telling me to open one in Quezon City,” this “Southern belle” shares. “Since I’m hands on, I don’t think I’d be able to effectively run one that far. But I’m open to further expanding my product line in the future. Let’s see.”
She has no stake in Luxuri Pets, which is owned by her sister and brother-in-law, Doctors Aivee and Z Teo, but she gladly lent her store’s name to them even though the two businesses couldn’t have been more different.
“Being a family of entrepreneurs connects us,” she says. “The association with Aivee and Z would add prestige to my own brand. It works both ways.”
How it began
Alelee’s fascination with luxury fashion, particularly bags, began when she was in high school. She remembers either saving up or waiting for her parents to gift her with the latest must-have Ralph Lauren bag.
When she married Martin 25 years ago, she soon realized the value of money, especially after Alexa and later Vince, their two children, were born. As Alelee became more judicious in handling the family’s finances, she eventually realized that she could still indulge herself in little luxuries without breaking the bank.
“That was when I started to unload by selling my older luxury bags in order to buy new ones,” she says. “It was during a trip to Japan, when we saw entire buildings filled with stores selling pre-loved luxury items, that gave me the idea to open Luxuri.”
Three years after her father’s passing, Alelee is still reduced to tears when asked if she misses him. What have she and her husband learned from their parents that they are now paying forward through their children?
“Through their words and actions, my mom and dad have always taught us to be grounded. Naku, napapaiyak naman ako (Now, I’m starting to cry), super! My dad was the most grounded person, so simple,” says Alelee, her voice cracking as she tries to hold back tears.
In turn, she and Martin have endeavored to raise Alexa and Vince to be grounded, mindful and, most of all, kind. “To never forget to be generous and share whatever they can,” she says.
Such generosity was in full display during the pandemic when Alelee worked pro bono at the Las Piñas City Hall. As the daughter of Mayor Aguilar and a Las Piñas resident herself, she felt that it was her duty to step up and go the extra mile to help fellow Las Piñeros who were financially displaced and literally going hungry.
As a result, after contracting COVID-19 thrice, it further opened her eyes to the plight of ordinary people, instilling in her greater joy and a deeper sense of connection, commitment and fulfillment in serving others.
“If the opportunity comes, I’m not closing my doors to running for public office,” she says with candor when asked about it. “When I started volunteering during the pandemic, I realized that I could make a difference and be of service to others. I discovered that I had it in me. At the same time, it taught me to be braver and more resilient. To be kinder.”
Like entrepreneurship, politics doesn’t require any special talent for you thrive in it, and Alelee Aguilar-Andanar knows it. What it asks of you instead is hard work, passion, dedication, loads of empathy for other people and service rendered from the heart.
Photography by MARK CHESTER ANG
Art direction by DEXTER FRANCIS DE VERA
Hair by JAARON GO • Makeup by MAYESA DELOS SANTOS
