JK Signature Styles defies the covid19 odds

Joanna and Keron James give a warm welcome to the High Street, San Fernando flagship store of JK Signature Styles. -
Joanna and Keron James give a warm welcome to the High Street, San Fernando flagship store of JK Signature Styles. -

The year 2020 is one of mixed fortunes for JK Signature Styles.

The chain of women's workwear stores closed its West Mall branch in Westmoorings, but the opening of a flagship branch in San Fernando, at the start of what has become a pandemic year has kept the fashion retailer going.

Co-founders Keron and Joanna James had to make the tough decision to shutter the West Mall store as covid19 and the slew of public health restrictions on business openings and gatherings led to a sharp decline in sales.

They felt the timing was nevertheless in their favour after they acquired a building on High Street, San Fernando last year.

“We completed the store at the start of 2020. When the pandemic hit, this location that we were trying to bring on stream became part of our survival mechanism. If this did not happen earlier, we would not have been in any position to purchase a building,” said Keron.

The same calculations that helped them determine the feasibility of closing the West Mall branch indicated the High Street branch would have had a positive effect on the company, he said.

He said business at the newest location has been positive since the economy has reopened. “We cannot expect any record profits. But it is doing what we hoped and expected it would have done.”

The pandemic meant they had to reangle operations for the survival of the company.

JK Signature Styles flagship store on High Street, San Fernando. -

“Covid19 was an extreme shock to the economy that we have all felt both as a nation and globally. However, when we started the business in 2009 that was on the heels of the global collapse of the financial markets in the US and we felt the effects here in TT. So, we kind of started this business in the midst of a reality where we had to figure out how to negotiate the success of the business when times are not at its best.”

Their first store was on Frederick Street, Port of Spain, then Grand Bazaar, Valsayn in 2010. Two years later, another branch was open in Gulf City Mall, San Fernando and in 2015, the couple opened the fourth store in West Mall, followed by another in Trincity Mall by 2016.

The team of full-time staff across all branches was 50 at the start of the year.

However, when the covid19-driven downturn hit the James' had to terminate their temporary employees which accounted for approximately 25 per cent of staff. “We had to part ways to protect the employment status of our permanent employees,” said Keron.

While they had never encountered challenges like those posed by the pandemic, the James' combined experience was of great benefit for the survival of the company.

“Joanna and I have enough of a background in finance, marketing, human resources and a few other things that helped us to negotiate our way up to the eleventh year. There was an immediate vacuum that completely took away sales," he said.

When TT started confirming cases of the virus and there was caution about numbers in public spaces, sales decreased rapidly, said Joanna.

Joanna and Keron James, at their High Street, San Fernando store, tailors the JK Signature Styles brand to the working woman. PHOTOS BY MARVIN HAMILTON
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"But then came the shutdown and at that time sales fell at a rate of between 80 and 90 per cent."

This, she said, happened within a month. “We made a decision to close a few days before the government announced closure because of general concerns and realities of what we were seeing with sales falling so dramatically. Like any other business, a major challenge we encountered is that our cash flow came to a halt.”

Sales, which covers the general operations of the company, had stopped, limiting its capacity to operate sustainably. “Effectively, if sales stop you’re out of business. So effectively we were out of business for three months," said Keron.

Although the company had online shopping technology solutions in place, it could not reap rewards in earlier stages of the lockdown as deliveries were also restricted. “Even getting someone to the warehouse to gather products for delivery was not possible. It was a moment of genuine uncertainty as to whether we would ever be able to reopen our doors.”

He said it was frightening because he knew during this period, bills would still be coming in.

“We had to go into emergency mode to rethink our financial structure, financial management and the company structure as a whole — that is where staff came in.”

He said at that point they had to think about how they would pay staff and how long they could possibly keep them employed during the period of uncertainty. “We made an early decision to keep our permanent staff but had to terminate temporary staff."

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While this was a hard decision the James' were confident the adjustment would help the company survive, otherwise they said they would have made themselves prepared to never reopen their doors.

"We tried to renegotiate every expense while communicating with our permanent staff. We discussed the realities with them and planned how we would have possibly been able to get through — including adjustments to salaries," Keron said.

Joanna said when looking at restructuring, close attention was given to each branch and how much income was generated. This was the gauge for determining which if any branch had to be closed permanently. “That is where we made the decision to close the West Mall branch," she said.

"Some put rent on hold while we were closed, while others gave us concessions. Most landlords really worked with us, which ensured the branches could have survived. But what we expected with West Mall was that it would have become a cost.” This meant it was likely to have become unsustainable, therefore putting pressure on the other branches to keep it afloat.

There has been an increase in sales since public sector workers returned to offices but the James' said the company is still in survival mode as a large portion of their clientele, including teachers, continue to work from home.

The company's website has facilitated online purchasing since 2018 which allowed them to earn via online purchases while branches were closed for walk-in sales. “We would have seen that sales online would have picked up tremendously, quadrupling during the lockdown,” Joanna said.

She said having gained customers throughout the English-speaking Caribbean, through their online shopping portal, contributed greatly to keeping the company afloat.

Joanna James highlights the handbags and women’s shoes available at JK Signature Styles. -

The staff's support also made this possible, said Keron.

“Throughout all of this, we did not get through without our staff. When it came down to making tough decisions, we got a lot of support from our staff. We were made aware of many of our team members’ situations.” He said this allowed the team to support each other by making decisions that would help keep everybody employed.

The couple, who said they are aware they represent a small minority of black-owned businesses in TT, said they were determined to find their own solutions without pushing for state support.

"Government support is something on which we decided not to rely," said Keron. "We asked ourselves what would we do if no support ever came. But if things change we would be happy to see a recognition of the unique challenges being faced. We had to be very cautious and savvy in avoiding any decision that could have left us vulnerable, which includes assuming the government will run to everyone’s rescue."

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"JK Signature Styles defies the covid19 odds"

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