S*uce — the third eye of fashion retail

DUBAI: Zayan Gandour cofounded sauce (www.shopatsauce.com) with Fatima Gobash and Dina Saleh in 2004. Sauce started as a multibrand fashion retailer offering eclectic collections of designs by up-and-coming designers and contemporary brands. Sauce operates 6 retail locations at the moment with 3 new concepts set to open in 2014. Over the years sauce has morphed into a multi-category retailer adding lifestyle products and home accessories.

What is Sauce?

S*uce is an award-winning multibrand fashion and lifestyle concept store. From the very first season at s*uce, the emphasis was always on providing customers with brands and styles that are not available anywhere else, and the most inspiring retail experience. S*uce is a lifestyle; it is a way of life.

We focus on everything from the product to the interior design, to the music in — store, the special exclusive scent, to the voice of the brand and the way it communicates with its fans. It’s a long-standing relationship.

For the first season we bought 12 brands that already had a cult following internationally but nobody stocked in the region. Then we added 50 brands for the second season. Currently we present over 600 brands at a time per season across different categories like — ready to wear, fashion accessories, lifestyle items and sometimes even a small kids collection. The categories keep on growing. The concept has taken a life of its own. Myself and the 2 creative buyers now attend all fashion trade shows and scour the Internet looking for the next big thing, or as yet unheard of brands. Furthermore, we work closely with many designers, both locally and internationally, customising special exclusive collections just for s*uce.

How did you ‘know’ that what you were doing for yourself had a wider market?

There was a demand for cool fun interesting brands that was just not met in the market, so it was pretty obvious really. There is a sense of ‘discovery’ in shopping, that all women enjoy. They love to find new things and secrets and share them with their friends. Today we travel the globe, from London, Milan, Paris New York to as far away as Japan, Brazil, Mexico, and Turkey to markets we didn’t even know existed, in search of that next big thing, or new designer. Our job is to find these talented designers and offer them in our stores, where our customers can then discover them for themselves.

Sauce is designed to deliver a new experience of discovery every day.

When did you say that let me make positive feedback a business?

We were all new in business. We had an intuition that we could all bring ‘something,’ to the mix. But it all happened very naturally and organically.

How?

We had decided to open the store and over summer Fatima had secured our trade license and we were ready for business. We bought 12 brands for the first season and they sold out very quickly. One of those brands was Seven Jeans from New York, which is now 7 For All Mankind and is very famous. We brought brands from Australia, which at that time was not necessarily known for fashion. Introducing new and unknown brands with a high fashion sensibility became our DNA — our winning formula.

Growth too?

Our first location was a small space in The Village Mall in Jumeirah. The store had no electricity connection on the first day we opened so we had to close at 6pm after the sun set. We started with one salesperson. Our knowledge of the business and brands, and operations all grew along with the business. Then in 2007 we got lucky, as our neighbours were leaving. So we doubled our floor size.

How important was The Village Mall shop for Sauce?

I always say that the Village Mall was our lucky location because that’s where it all began. The store was like our office. We met with the designers there, and it is where we met our customers. Getting immediate feedback from customers and staff on what we were doing was important. It helped us tighten the way we worked and focus on getting the formula right for the customer.

Future development?

The s*uce brand has grown from where we started. We know our customer and strive to remain true to them while bearing in mind the evolving and growing tastes.

We have focused on organic growth even though we have received many offers to franchise. Retail franchising requires a lot of attention to detail. My two partners have contributed greatly to operations and PR. Each partner had a personal touch and input to the business. We were not sure whether we were ready for growth and franchising and always prefer to keep tighter control of the brand.

When buying how did you know how much to spend on what?

When I started I trusted my eye and instinct and felt that we had enough customers who would relate to my aesthetic. I think this ‘gift’ is embedded in the Sauce slogan — Love What You Love Without Hesitation. I believed that if you genuinely love something there will be someone, another person who will share the same ‘space’ with you.

Our stores give the appearance of a ‘playground.’ Every product comes with a fashion sensibility, an edge, and element of surprise. We don’t buy hundreds of pieces. We buy selectively which makes it more challenging. But we end up with deliveries almost every day and every customer feels that they are buying an exclusive product,

How do you discover designers? Say in Japan.

We put an itinerary to visit stores that even most Japanese may be unfamiliar with. To prepare the itinerary we go through every possible fashion publication from Japan. We look for what is new. What is small and not yet mainstream Japan. We go to the outskirts of cities finding brands and doing comparative shopping. Japanese brands usually don’t get exported. Brands are also happy in their cocoon; they don’t have to deal with a foreigner who doesn’t speak their language. I have to reach them inside their ‘content’ cocoon. It sometimes takes one week to get an appointment but we are patient and wait and persevere!

But selling a Japanese product in Dubai?

Yes, why not? If the product is strong, and is merchandised well, and sits comfortably within the s*uce product mix, it does very well. Who cares where it is from? Everything at s*uce is curated to fit within the s*uce world, and when customers shop at s*uce, they are shopping that aesthetic, whether the designer is from japan, London or the UAE.

You have found a designer who is prepared to sell to you after much cajoling at a certain price. Where do you get a feeling that the price that they are selling to you at and the price you will sell at will make a business?

There is always a customer for every product, a customer who finds value in the exclusivity and creativity of the piece. Design and production and shipping are expensive and need to be taken into account for the final price. We understand the struggle of independent up-and-coming designers. Whereas catwalk designers struggle with high street brands because they knock — off their designs three months after the catwalk show. My goal is to find designers that the high street has not or cannot knock-off. So it is always special, different and unique. This is our expertise.

Where was the seed of enterpership lying in you?

I never knew it I had it in me. I don’t think one learns entrepreneurship. You have a certain instinct. A food retailer knows the palate he needs to satisfy in his restaurant. I know my customer. I know what to give her. I know what I love. I go after it and make sure I produce it. You spoke about forecasting trends. I think it is like a third eye kind of a moment.

I have also learnt that if there is sincerity in whatever you are selling things will work. In Sauce we try to do things right and believe in transparency, you get what you see. We have ingrained this culture in Sauce.

Are you an accidental entrepreneur?

Absolutely. Luck has played as much an important role as hard work. I found the right partners in the right place at the right time.

Any challenges?

The biggest challenge is to win the confidence of landlords and secure locations when you are competing with large retail giants or international luxury brands. Yet what we offer is totally unique — we create new exciting concepts that inspire customers. Landlords love the ideas but still worry about how bankable they are. Dubai malls still hesitate when it comes to locally bred products and brands but I think that is changing and s*uce probably had a lot to do with changing those attitudes.

When did you decide to have a brand of your own?

The plan was always there but once again, I needed things to fall into place before it could be actioned. For the first four years I was the only buyer plus creative director and so Zayan the Label had to remain on the back-burner. Starting your own brand is a huge challenge — after the initial inspiration design is all about having a great production team and facility. We needed someone to make it happen. We now have four people in the production team, a small workshop in Dubai, and produce in China and Bali. We will soon have a stand-alone store.

Challenges of a changing business model?

We have traditionally bought a huge variety with small depth. But now that we are opening new stores and concepts, we are buying more.

Organic development is what I love because it comes with a lot of spirit, love, hard work and long nights. I don’t focus on any big specific goal to be achieved. We just do it wholeheartedly and see what happens.

How have you changed implementing Sauce?

I just grew a little older but the child in me keeps me creative; I retain the spirit of a young person with a drive to experiment and do things differently all the time.