While sophistication and refinement do not carry a price tag, Gerry, an IT guy who later stumbled into the luxury home items business via Opulence Design Concept, believes that there’s space in every home for a touch of elegance and style.
By BÜM D. TENORIO JR.
Luxury living is a dream for many. When it becomes a reality for some of them, trust that Gerry Sy somehow has a hand in it.
Gerry’s handsome face matches his handsome taste in luxury furniture and well-crafted home décor. It comes with the territory because Gerry and his beautiful wife Jinky own Opulence Design Concept, a swanky home store chain that sells not only home items, but luxury, comfort and style.
While some people say sophistication and refinement do not carry a price tag, Gerry believes that there’s always space, a room, a nook in every home in need of added elegance and style. And class doesn’t come cheap — for obvious reasons that Gerry’s venture carries beautiful finds from renowned brands like Fornasetti, Versace Home, Versace by Rosenthal, Dolce & Gabbana Casa, Swarovski by Rosenthal, Sambonet, Tomas, MisuraEmme, Stosa Cucine, Vimar and even Samsung.
From living to lifestyle spaces
Because every home is a direct expression of its dwellers, Gerry helps homeowners articulate their style essentials. In effect, with Opulence, he helps them transform their living spaces into a lifestyle.
“Opulence is my pet project with my very supportive wife, Jinky,” he says, adding that stumbling into this business did not happen by outright choice but by mere coincidence.
Gerry is an IT guy. What brought him to selling lifestyle is a story of system integration with his experience in information technology as the motherboard of everything elegant and beautiful for Opulence, so to speak.
For five years, from 1998 to 2003, he was in Canada to finish his master’s in Information Technology and set up his own IT business with a Canadian business partner. In 2003, he came home to the Philippines to attend his brother’s wedding. He wanted to use the opportunity to be in Manila to recruit people to work in Canada for his company. But things changed when many clients approached him for their IT needs. He decided to stay and put up his own IT business in the Philippines instead.
“My main business is IntelliSmart Technology, Inc., an IT company that provides system integration needed by many companies. Over the years, I began to develop payroll systems, accounting systems and enterprise systems, among others, for my clients,” says Gerry, who took up Psychology at the De La Salle University.
Later on, Gerry expanded the business and diversified into audiovisual devices, CCTVs and fire-detection tools. In 2012, Samsung tapped his company as its direct platinum partner to distribute its high-end appliances, air-conditioning units and mobile phones.
In 2016, in his desire to further upgrade IntelliSmart, he started a business venture with Vimar, a high-tech, high-end Italian company that deals with wiring devices, lights, wireless light control and switches and electrical sockets. What a happy problem it was when he found out his showroom in Greenhills was too big a shop for Vimar devices.
“So, my Italian Vimar supplier asked me if I wanted to get into an Italian modular kitchen. That was the time we brought in Stosa Cucine, which designs modern and classic kitchens that are stylish, superior, top quality. Shortly after, we brought in MisuraEmme for its walk-in closet to complement the kitchen,” he recalls.
Listen to the Mrs.
Gerry, ever an attentive husband, listened to his wife when Jinky told him, “We’re lacking something more fast-moving. Let’s look at Fornasetti.”
Fornasetti, another Italian brand, of course, is the gold standard of precious porcelain, sophisticated pieces of furniture and furnishing accessories. The couple flew to Milan to visit the store. But because they did not have an appointment, they were not entertained by the company. Gerry then accomplished a form for an online appointment with Fornasetti’s international sales director.
Luckily, after the online meeting, the couple were asked to fly back to Milan for a store visit and right there and then, they bagged a distribution deal for Fornasetti in the Philippines in 2019. Since then, Opulence has consistently become the leading partner of Fornasetti in Southeast Asia.
When the pandemic hit, Gerry was surprised to learn that though Opulence was selling non-essential goods at the height of COVID-19, many of his luxury items still sold. Big thanks, he says, to celebrity influencer Heart Evangelista who “organically” promoted on social media the brands he carries in his showroom.
It was also during the time of the pandemic when he ventured into food business with SuperSam, because he heeded the call of his chef friends who were displaced as many restaurants began to close one by one. Because he was motivated by his kind heart when he decided to open his restaurant, his food venture is still thriving to this day.
The “luxury” man that he is, Gerry has remained grounded, saying that his real opulence is his family.
“My dad is handsome and kind,” says Gian, 12, the eldest of his four children. From his children, he learns confidence and further honesty. “Gian is very confident,” says Gerry. “He can face all my employees and talk to them, even hosts our company parties. I can’t do that. I have stage fright. But tell me to sell something to many people, I can do that.”
Role model
Gerry always teaches his children the value of integrity, of word of honor, of always telling the truth, of being just and fair. “You will always hear my children say: ‘Dad hates liars’.”
Even when he was courting Jinky, whom he met in the hospital while he was getting the lab results for his dad and Jinky was having a medical appointment with the same doctor, he was honest enough to tell her of his intentions. Not wanting to be paired with other Filipino-Chinese women, as is customary for Chinoys, Gerry waited intently for Jinky to answer via SMS, after he had asked her to meet again. Their second meeting led to forever “because Jinky is really the one.”
“Gerry is a hands-on father. Parenthood is easier because he shares the responsibility with me. Between the two of us, he gives in more. I am the bad cop; and he plays the good cop to our children,” says Jinky.
“My wife guides me. Because I’m very aggressive when it comes to business, she always guides and supports me,” says Gerry, who adds that he learned the importance of credibility and righteousness from his 92-year-old mother. His late father, whose family was into pharmaceutical business in the past, taught Gerry integrity.
At the end of the day, aside from his family, faith makes Gerry’s life more opulent. To have faith is to have all the luxuries and riches in the world. Gerry’s life subscribes to that.
Photography by RAP YU
Art direction by DEXTER FRANCIS DE VERA
Grooming by KLENG TOTANES
Shot on location at OPULENCE DESIGN CONCEPT, GREENHILLS
