Ever Gotesco Malls

Ever Gotesco Malls

Type	Shopping malls
Industry	Retail industry
Founded	C.M. Recto Ave., Manila, Philippines (1972)
Headquarters	C.M. Recto Ave., Sta. Cruz, Manila, Philippines
Number of locations	2 branches (as of January 1, 2016)
Area served	Metro Manila
Key people	Jose Go (Founder and CEO)
Website	Ever Gotesco Malls Facebook Page

Ever Gotesco Malls Group of Companies, under the trade name Ever Gotesco Malls, is a shopping mall and retail operator in Metro Manila. It was incorporated on 1972 by Chinese Filipino entrepreneur Jose Go, whose main vision was to develop, conduct, operate and maintain affordable and accessible commercial shopping malls for the Filipino masses. Its main competitors are: Isetann, Gaisano, Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, Walter Mart Malls, Ortigas Malls, Starmalls, Robinsons Malls, SM Prime Holdings and Ayala Malls. It has 2 branches as of New Year's Day 2016.

History

Ever Gotesco Malls Group of Companies launched in 1972^[1] when Jose Go, aged 24, opened the five-story Ever Emporium on C.M. Recto Ave. in Downtown Manila.

The declaration of martial law by then President Marcos helped his business take off, as the economy was continuously boosting and prices of commodities were kept in check. Go took advantage of the low-priced merchandise and was one of the pioneers of one-stop shopping. His store sold low-priced goods to thousands of low-income students who survived on small allowances. The huge volumes sold made up for the goods' thin margins.

By 1975, Go had made Ever Emporium a popular retail name. From Recto, he expanded to Caloocan City, where he built the $6-million, 40,000-square meter Ever Gotesco mall that lured the low- to middle-income residents of the populous city to shop in droves.

With two major shopping malls in the capital and two more elsewhere, Go formed Ever Gotesco Resources and Holdings (EGRH) in 1996. An initial public offering (IPO) that year gave him enough ammunition to expand into uncharted territory.

EGRH acquired a struggling, publicly listed mining company called Suricon that was later renamed Gotesco Land. He also invested in a housing project in Bulacan, North Caloocan, and a hot springs resort in Laguna. He bought a small bank (that later became his biggest headache), a golf course in Tagaytay, and purchase 20 percent worth of stocks in a paging company.

His goal then was ambitious: to build a $2-billion retail-and-property conglomerate that churns out $350 million a year. Unfortunately, the Asian financial crisis, caught him aggressively expanding into other businesses using borrowed dollars. The crisis doubled his debts and forced him to tap into the deposits of his wholly owned Orient Commercial Banking Corp.

The bank went down in history as the first victim of the Asian crisis when it closed on Valentine's Day, 1998. Until now, Go is still fighting the foreclosure of his assets by the central bank, which lent over P8 billion to Orient Bank. He is also facing multibillion-peso lawsuits and all his properties have been garnished by the courts.

On March 17, 2012, Ever Gotesco Grand Central Mall in Caloocan burned down in a devastating fire which raged for more than 20 hours. The mall closed down after fire brought under control.

Branches

Current

Former

Gallery

• 
  Ever Department Store
• 
  The Manila Plaza
• 
  The Manila Plaza
• 
  Ever Ortigas (now SM City East Ortigas)

References

External links

• Ever Gotesco Malls. Official Facebook Page
• Ever Gotesco Malls. Official Twitter Page