TWENTY years ago Steve Ma had $1000 to his name. He bought 200 T-shirts from Sydney's Paddy's Market, loaded them onto his van and drove 100 kilometres to Wollongong, where he resold them for a modest profit.
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That sale was his entree to the world of fashion, from where he and his wife, Helen, have built a 33-store business which is expected to ring-up sales of $45 million this year, up from $38.5 million in 2008.
As retailers around the country watch sales slide backward, with some warning sales will be up to 10 per cent lower than last year, the quietly-spoken Mr Ma is offering customers at his SES stores a new look every month and watching sales soar.
He sells "disposable" fashion to women aged from 15 to 35, turning over two million items of clothing last year and making his stores one of the few success stories in what is shaping up to be retailing's toughest environment in 20 years.
Sales were up 16 per cent in December and 12 per cent so far in January, and he expects them to continue to be up on last year.
It's a long way from life as a dried-fish wholesaler on the west coast of Korea. In the late 1980s he was forced to leave his home after a typhoon destroyed his family's seaweed plantation.
Since arriving in Australia and learning his trade from Jewish, Chinese and Indian sellers at the markets, he has built his multimillion-dollar business organically, with little or no debt, and says his ability to keep prices low, even when the exchange rate has gone against him, is the secret to his success.
He says an important lesson was to buy stock at a price that will allow you to make a profit - not just at the "suggested price".
The 54-year-old also points to the fact that his small operation - with just 18 of the 250 staff in the head office - can beat rival rag traders with their speed to market with the latest looks from European catwalks.
Mr Ma has also been able to increase sales by heavily discounting at a time when most others have been forced to lift prices due to the falling value of the Australian dollar.
So far the risks have paid off and he is grabbing market share from bargain-basement rivals who cater for the teenage and 20-something market and those trading down from pricier mainstream chains.
"You have to respect customers. If their budget is less, [then] we have to keep the prices low," Mr Ma said.
