Christmas is approaching, it's almost time to think about the fateful gifts. Do you need to think about various people but at the same time want to spend little? If you live in the North, perhaps between Turin, Milan and Genoa, there's a shop that's right for you: è Tiger, a real bazaar of low-cost design objects, in its second year of life in Italy after having sailed around the world from Denmark twenty years ago.
In the Tiger emporium you can find everything: gadgets, objects for the home, articles for children, various knick-knacks that are more or less useful but certainly attractive and tasty. Ideal for a Christmas present (but not only), with prices starting from one euro and on average ranging between 2 and 4. This is why "Tiger is the only shop where you see customers leaving with two bags full of purchases, having spent just around twenty euros", as explained by the man who brought this anti-crisis business model to Italy after seeing it depopulate even in Greece and Spain. The latter is precisely the country of origin of Javier Gomez, 38 years old, with a degree in Economics and Commerce and now Turinese by adoption after an experience in Fiat since 2001 with various roles, from project manager for the relaunch of Alfa Romeo to marketing director. A respectable resume, but with no experience in retail.
“In fact, the idea was born by chance: I was walking with my wife in Madrid, where the Tiger chain (200 stores in 17 countries around the world, from Denmark to Japan, ed) has existed for 5-6 years. We wanted to buy so many things, but it would have been impossible to bring them on the plane. So we asked ourselves: is it possible that there is no such shop in Turin? It didn't exist, and we got the crazy idea." Creating it, Gomez continues, however, was not easy: "It took me a while to recover contact: even if Tiger is an international group, the site was not very well done and the part relating to the parent company, which is in Copenhagen , it was only written in Danish!”. Javier Gomez, however, finally makes it: also involves his wife and three other partners in a simple company that participates 50% with "Zebra", the parent company led by the founder Lennart Lajboschitz, which "began in 1995 by repairing umbrellas in the winter and sunglasses in the summer" and which still personally chooses its members.
“It's not a franchise – underlines Gomez – but a 50/XNUMX joint venture, fully self-financed by the results of our business”. Activity, that of Tiger Italia, which in just two years of life in Italy (the first store was opened in Turin on April 6, 2011, the second in Milan on November 15 of the same year) is growing dramatically, establishing itself as a winning recipe against the crisis: “People have less economic possibilities, but that doesn't mean they have less propensity to buy: come on, you have the opportunity to spend little and at the same time to find a little bit of everything in the same shop, a very welcome opportunity especially during the Christmas holidays, close to which in fact we earn 30% of our annual turnover”.
Turnover that in the first year, 2011, with only two stores, was 1,7 million euros, only to explode in the current year with the opening of another five points of sale: “it is expected to be around 6,5 million”, assures the founder of Tiger Italia, who currently employs a total of 70 people between Milan, Turin (where there are now three stores), Genoa, Piacenza and Alessandria. “I would like to point out, however, that our business model is successful not only for prices and for the variety and type of products, but also and above all for the concept. Lennart always says it: 'We can't afford to be a conventional shop', and therefore we have focused a lot on the furnishings, the lighting, the music, the friendliness of the staff. Our points of sale are becoming meeting points where people also make appointments”. And then, this should also be remembered, "rarely go out empty handed".
It's not hard to believe if you think about it the average receipt at Tiger ranges between 5 and 7 euros, and often includes more than one item. Items that are the most diverse: from fly catcher guns (“One of the most popular, I must say,” Gomez recalls laughing), to children's briefcases, to an original collection of cups for the kitchen, and which are all designed in the Copenhagen headquarters and produced around the world, some also in Italy. And above all, that they are never the same: "Every month we manage to change at least 30% of our offer", specifies Gomez. The right (cheap) product, therefore, but also at the right time (crisis and Christmas) and in the right place (welcoming space), as its Italian founder likes to recall.
And where does this great little idea born out of nowhere want to go? Very far. “In 2013 we plan to open another 10-12 stores, all in the North (for the Center there is another concessionary company, which will debut on the market shortly, ed) between Bologna, Florence, Verona, Brescia, Cremona, and at least another in Milan. Then, by the end of 2015, we would like to reach about sixty points of sale”. By then, Tiger will have officially become a brand. The "a little bit of everything, and at a low cost" brand, the anti-crisis brand par excellence.
