Page One founder Mark Tan bucks the trend by opening a big new store in Hong Kong
Book chain founder Mark Tan is expanding the scope of his retail business, writes Kate Whitehead
For almost 30 years, Singaporean Mark Tan, founder of the Page One bookstore chain, lived by the motto "I read therefore I am". He recently revised that personal and business philosophy to "I love therefore I am", and the direct expression of this maxim is the new flagship store in Harbour City in Tsim Sha Tsui which opens on Tuesday - an exciting development at a time when bookshops around the world are folding.
The book business has changed dramatically since Tan was a young man, fresh out of compulsory military service and starting his first job as a sales rep for a book distribution company. Tasked with promoting a publisher that focused on architecture books, he was drawn in by the compelling images and had no trouble getting orders from booksellers for the beautiful volumes. But problems arose when it came time to collect the money.
If you want to open a bookshop, don't look at other bookshops ... because if you do, you'll only end up the same as them or worse, never better
"I told myself I need to find a customer who I can really trust, who can sell the book quickly and pay promptly. Eventually, I decided I had to do it myself, so I started the bookshop." Tan makes it sound easy, but his success is the result of a huge amount of effort on his part.
Sitting in the restaurant of his 35,000-square-foot flagship store, his back to the construction going on in the background, he admits he's hands-on with business operations. "I am a detail man - the curtains aren't ready yet, the windows are dirty, and that plug is too high. Even the green tiles for the floor I went out and handpicked myself - I love therefore I am."
He had that same drive to get things during his early days as a sales rep in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. He didn't just do the rounds of bookstores - he took his books to the creative folk who were most likely to read them, going directly to their offices. Such was the interest in the books that he could arrive at some of the biggest architecture firms and staff would stop work to see what he had. "Even the boss would come over. This interaction with creative people has been really important for me. I understand how artists think, what they need," says Tan.
And after the establishment of the first store in Singapore in 1983, specialising in art and design books, it was an architect who was to help shape his approach to business. He followed developments in the architecture world closely and kept aside what he saw as the best books for his key customers. One such regular was an architect and Tan was delighted to press into his hands a book on a new architecture project - but the architect didn't want it. Tan was stunned until the architect explained he didn't want to risk being influenced by the work and would prefer to get his inspiration from photography and paintings.
"I realised that if you want to open a bookshop, don't look at other bookshops. Look at fashion or anything else, but don't look at the book business because if you do, then you'll only end up the same as them or worse, never better."