Capturing The Market

The evolution of Leica’s retail lifestyle experience through the lens of Mr. Sunil Kaul, Managing Director of Leica Camera Asia Pacific

- Jamie Nonis

Mr. Sunil Kaul greets every guest with a warm handshake, welcoming each person to Leica’s refurbished store at Raffles Hotel Arcade, which has been revamped in tandem with the major overhaul the historic hotel and its retail premises. Eager to get back in business, the 169-year-old German camera company is the first tenant to reopen in December 2018.

It’s a special moment for the Managing Director of Leica Camera Asia Pacific, who was instrumental in establishing this boutique – Leica’s first in Southeast Asia – nine years ago. Back then, Leica cameras were being sold through dealers and it was not the right distribution strategy for the premium manufacturer of handcrafted cameras, lenses, and sport optic tools.

“Many were just milking the cow and not adding any valuable contributions to the brand,” he tells me when we meet again a few days later. “They were just financially focused, wanting to earn their margins without really understanding the customer. So I had to assume the role of ‘The Terminator’,” he shares candidly, recalling the business landscape when he first joined Leica, and the culling of dealerships that ensued.

Mr. Kaul’s 12-year journey with the brand began at the Leica headquarters in Germany, when he was appointed Area Sales Manager for the Asia Pacific in 2007. An initial four-month secondment “to understand the DNA of the brand” turned into a year due to a management change, which empowered him with a deeper understanding of how to restructure the Singapore business and set the stage for expansion.

He returned to Singapore to head a team of “one-and-a-half ” – just himself and an assistant, working from a small office in Jurong.