Uniwide Sales

Uniwide Sales, Inc.

Company type	Private
Industry	Shopping malls
Founded	January 1975;49 years ago (1975-01) Avenida Rizal, Manila
Defunct	June 2013;11 years ago (2013-06)
Headquarters	Parañaque and Las Piñas, Metro Manila
Number of locations	2
Area served	Philippines
Key people	Jimmy Gow (Founder, Chairman and CEO)
Owner	Uniwide Holdings
Website	http://www.uni-wide.com (Archived from the Internet Archive)

Uniwide Sales, Inc. was a retail operator in Metro Manila, Philippines. It was incorporated in January 1975 by Chinese Filipino entrepreneur Jimmy Gow to operate Uniwide commercial shopping centers, such as leasing commercial spaces within the compound of their malls and department stores.

Uniwide had about 2,000 employees. Its competing retailers in the 1970s and the 1980s were COD Department Store, Ever Gotesco Malls, Plaza Fair, Isetann and The Landmark; however, they lagged behind SM Supermalls, Robinsons Malls and Ayala Malls. It had two branches and was set to be closed down by the order of the Securities and Exchange Commission.^{[ when? ]}

History

Uniwide was established in January 1975 ^[1] in Avenida Rizal as Uniwide Sales Textile Bargain House Center. With the success, the Gow family expanded to ready-to-wear apparel and accessories and became a complete department store and supermarket chain.

The company introduced the mass-oriented warehouse club concept in the country in 1988, establishing a chain of warehouse clubs in prime locations in the country in the next two years, which also started the company's woes. Some of its assets in prime locations, such as its abandoned building in Cubao, Quezon City (which was destroyed by a fire in 1996), were already bought by Puregold Price Club Inc. of the Co family. Another unfinished building in Mandaue City, Cebu, was supposedly a warehouse club occupied by slum dwellers whose site was subsequently converted into a shopping center named Parkmall. The warehouse on Marcos Highway was already demolished, and the lot was sold to Gokongwei-led Robinsons Land Corporation's commercial centers division to pave the way for Robinsons Metro East and in Libis, Quezon City to pave the way for Wilcon Depot. Its remaining warehouse club is in Metromall in Las Piñas, Tarlac City, Malolos in Bulacan, Caloocan, Novaliches in Quezon City and Sucat in Parañaque (these said branches later became Super 8 Grocery Warehouse in 2006 when these warehouse clubs sold their stakes). Uniwide partnered with RPN-9 for the quiz show Battle of the Brains , which aired from 1992 to 2000.

In 1998, it entered into corporate rehabilitation during the Asian financial crisis. At that time, the company's retail business had a network of eight warehouse clubs and two department stores. Liquidity problems, however, affected earnings. Sales declined from P14.5 billion in 1997 to just about P4.3 billion in 2000.

They often attempted to clear Baguio City Market in Baguio, Benguet to build a mall. However, due to opposition from the vendors, stall owners and associations kept the project on hold, and opposition was still around.

The Uniwide Coastal Mall was envisioned in the 1990s to become the country's biggest shopping mall complex. It was built on a 10-hectare portion of MBDC's 40-hectare Central Business Park II in Parañaque City when Cabangis and Rey were chief financial officer and controller of UHI, respectively. The mall was 90% complete and was partially operational, with tenants already occupying the finished parts of the mall fronting Roxas Boulevard before the 1997 Asian financial crisis. The mall never formally opened as a result and only contained a few operational establishments, including GALA Bowling Club, Shakey's Pizza, Prodatanet, Jollibee, B.I.R. Parañaque, Wide Aero Av School, Uniwide Theatre and Movie Hall, McDonald's, Mang Inasal, Hyundai Showroom, Super8 Grocery Warehouse and Dunkin' Donuts. The building was then converted into a transport terminal for public utility vehicles from Batangas and Cavite. ^{[2] [3] [4]} By 2006, Coastal Mall was superseded by SM Mall of Asia as the country's biggest shopping mall complex in operation. After the construction and opening of Parañaque Integrated Terminal Exchange in 2018 as the new transport terminal hub, Coastal Mall ceased all functions and was abandoned. By April 2022, the main structure was completely demolished, with the approval of the Philippine Reclamation Authority obtained by the Manila Bay Development Corporation (MBDC). ^[5]

Amid numerous legal battles and financial setbacks, Gow has diligently worked to recover losses and reclaim assets and properties for Uniwide Sales, all while managing multiple cases. ^[6]

Uniwide's former in-house supermarket chain, Super8 Grocery Warehouse, spun off from its parent company in 2006 to become Super8 Retail Systems, Inc., a wholly independent company with over 70 branches across Luzon. ^[7]

Uniwide Metromall Las Piñas (known as Knows Best Bargain Center, Inc.) plans to be redeveloped from SM Prime as SM Metromall Las Piñas.

Knows Best Bargain Center, Inc. (Uniwide Las Piñas) and Bargain Specialist, Inc. (Uniwide Malolos) are the Uniwide branches that have not been demolished.

Metro Mall Las Piñas

Metro Mall Las Piñas is a partially operational and semi-abandoned dead mall located on the Alabang-Zapote Road in Las Piñas, built and formerly operated by Uniwide Sales. ^[8]

The mall has gained notoriety for its increasingly decrepit state, with large parts being completely unlit and large parts of the ceiling leaking and collapsing due to a lack of maintenance. Plastic tarps have been hung over some leaking sections of the roof to try and mitigate the issue. ^[9]

The mall features three storeys of retail and basement parking, with the ground floor containing various stalls and stores selling cheap goods and a Super8 Grocery Warehouse. ^[10]

The 2nd floor is mostly empty yet remains accessible, half of which is blocked off. The 3rd floor of the mall formerly housed a cinema, ^[11] the indoor Euroland amusement park, ^[12] and Planet Music, a KTV Bar, though it is entirely inaccessible and sealed off.

The 3rd atrium, which formerly served Euroland, features a giant artificial tree spanning four storeys from the ground floor to the ceiling. ^[13]

Largely-abandoned second floor of the Uniwide Metro Mall.

References

1. Cabuag, VG (24 June 2013). "Uniwide says SEC decision 'unfair'". BusinessMirror. Archived from the original on 27 June 2013.
2. Punay, Edu T. (18 December 2013). "Uniwide investors sue over Coastal Mall fiasco". Philstar.com. Manila: The Philippine STAR . Retrieved 27 October 2019.
3. Capino, Alvin (16 August 2013). "The controversial Uniwide Coastal Mall". manilastandard.net. Manila: Manila Standard. Archived from the original on 29 November 2017.
4. "Coastal Mall (South West Integrated Provincial Transport Terminal) - Wikimapia". wikimapia.org. Retrieved 2017-06-18.
5. Philippine Daily Inquirer (18 April 2022). "BIZ BUZZ: Finally demolished". INQUIRER.net. Philippines: Philippine Daily Inquirer . Retrieved 8 May 2022.
6. "What Ever Happened to Uniwide Sales?".
7. "Super8 Grocery Warehouse". www.super8.ph. Retrieved 2019-05-02.
8. "Uniwide Metro Mall Las Piñas City - Las Piñas". wikimapia.org.
9. "Uniwide Metromall". Foursquare.
10. "Uniwide Metromall". Foursquare.
11. "Reddit - Dive into anything". www.reddit.com.
12. "Unwide@Metromall". YouTube . 28 December 2017.
13. "Reddit - Dive into anything". www.reddit.com.