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Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I ♥ Squadron 1:46 PM

Read across this fancy article about Charles and Keith, yup those shoemakers. I was just browsing thinking of getting a pair of stilettos.

Brothers Charles and Keith Wong make shoes that make young women squeal with delight. Over the last eight years, the brothers have built a $20 million-a-year business with 11 stores in Singapore and 20 overseas on stylish shoes. The eponymous shoe label they started is completely homegrown and has humble beginnings.

As teenagers, Charles and Keith worked at their parents’ shoe shop, L&A Trading in Ang Mo Kio Central, doing everything from helping customers to try on shoes to stock-taking. Born two years apart, the Wong brothers overcame their lacklustre academic performance to become a local footwear success story.

Recognizing that shoes from most foreign wholesalers were expensive and unsuitable for smaller Asian feet, they seized on the opportunity, pooled their savings and went into business introducing their own line of contemporary ladies footwear, aptly named Charles & Keith.

They set up shop on 500 sq ft in Amara Shopping Centre which by the end of the first year had raked in $200,000 in sales. After 6 years in the business, Charles & Keith recorded sales of $20 million in 2003.Not content to operate only locally, the brothers turned their attention overseas, and with Charles’s business acumen and Keith’s flair for design it was long before the duo had successfully franchised Indonesia, Australia, U.A.E, Philippines. Charles & Keith has since also entered the retail markets of Thailand, Japan, Myanmar, and Mauritius. Currently, their biggest overseas retailing chain is in Indonesia, with 13 outlets and plans for exoansion.

The Charles & Keith story has not been without its share of difficulties as local footwear companies are for the most part disregarded and perceived as budget & uncompetitive. Charles attributes the success that has been achieved to date to the values of hard work, dedication and mutual trust.