A tiger flies across the world
Makati branch is the first stop of novelty item store Flying Tiger Copenhagen’s expansion into Southeast Asia
IF ONE might need earrings shaped like Christmas balls, or they need a pair of fairy wings, a set of fake mustaches, or a golden hip flask on the fly, Flying Tiger Copenhagen, a new store in Glorietta, is there for you.
During the opening on Nov. 6, influencers and media flocked to the store for their fix of novelty items, and surprisingly, even practical kitchen things like sieves and strainers, and office supplies. The Glorietta store boasts a floor space of 187.46 square meters and a selection spanning various categories like Gadget, Game, Hobby, Home, Kitchen, Media, Office, Party, Personal Care, Textile, and Toy: all amounting to over 1,000 unique items.
The brand traces its origins to the 1980s where Flying Tiger founder Lennart Lajboschitz and his wife Suz sold umbrellas at a flea market in Denmark. They opened a store called Zebra in Copenhagen, selling socks, sunglasses, and other sundry. Martin Jermiin, CEO of Flying Tiger Copenhagen, told BusinessWorld in an interview, “Our founders’ kids thought it’d be fun if another store would be called Tiger. As we then expanded globally, we needed a distinct name, so we wanted to illustrate how ‘flying’ we were, so it became Flying Tiger.” A statement says, “It takes its name from the phonetic similarity of the Danish word, tier, as in a 10 kroner coin, which is what all items in its first store used to cost.”
“The opening of our first Flying Tiger Copenhagen store in the Philippines marks the start of our exciting expansion in Southeast Asia. This is an important milestone for our brand and we are very pleased to have partnered up with SSI Group on this monumental market entry,” said Mr. Jermiin in a statement. As he told BusinessWorld about their entry into the Philippines, “It’s a vibrant, growing, youthful market, with a culture around being social, and that resonates with us.”
While the company creates the designs for the products, the items themselves are made in China, Southeast Asia, and in Europe, according to Mr. Jermiin. “We spend a lot of time designing them ourselves. We are very diligent in the materials, we know the material composition of every single product, so that we know that it’s sustainable,” he said. “We have diligent supplier management to make sure that our suppliers have the right working conditions.”
Speaking about Danish design (think Bang & Olufsen), Mr. Jermiin says, “There’s a certain direction that we all get born and raised in that tradition of — let’s call it not minimalistic, but a simple design — but with a lot of fun and quirkiness, and with a social element to it. That radiates. It comes from that, and then obviously, we try to have the very best, the brightest, and the craziest of product people.”
The Danish people aren’t very famous for being spontaneous, and hearing about all the fun they’re supposed to be having is news to us. But when they get down for fun, it looks like a good time (we’re looking at the games and the costumes at the store). “A lot of what we do is not about the product itself, but bringing (people) together around it. Whether it’s me as a father playing with my kids, or doing do-it-yourself Christmas decorations: many of our products are meant to be for occasions when you are together as a family, or with friends.”
In the Philippines, Flying Tiger Copenhagen is exclusively distributed by Stores Specialists, Inc., and is located at Glorietta 4, Makati. — Joseph L. Garcia
