São Paulo – Those that see the sign of one of Brazil’s largest toy store retail chains, Ri Happy, naturally have no idea that those words are a reference to the grandson of Lebanese grandparents and his happiness, with “Ri” coming from Ricardo. Ricardo Sayon, of Arab descent, is the founder of Ri Happy and the one responsible for turning the chain, in the 1990s, in a sales phenomenon among toy stores in the country.
A pediatrician, Sayon is one of those people of Lebanese descent that chose not to follow the footsteps of their father and grandfather – typical business men – but that throughout life came around and embraced their talent for business. Even though he sold Ri Happy in 2012, he’s still a businessman, currently investing in malls.
From an office in São Paulo, Sayon manages the malls Rio Claro, located in the namesake city, and Pátio Pinda, in the city of Pindamonhangaba. He also has investments in mall Shopping Bauru, real estate developments and hotels. Sayon says that, regarding the malls, he likes the planning and marketing areas, but that if retailers ask for discounts, if there are new rental proposals or demands of this type, he’s also the one managing them.
Life is quieter now compared to the eventful life story of the founder of Ri Happy, who also was a very successful doctor. Even he admits, when talking about dreams, that he doesn’t have any more long-term large projects or ambitions: “I just want to live peacefully. For my daughters to live happily, for my grandchildren to be healthy,” he says.
Sayon is 66 years old and says he’s a very fulfilled person. And this statement is not hard to understand when he begins to tell his story. Ricardo Sayon’s will to become a doctor was in synch with his father’s stance, who didn’t want his children involved with business. Sayon’s father worked with retail and industry, in sectors so different from each other like fabrics and turbo generators, and he also was an airplane pilot in his spare time. He used to do aerobatic stunts. He believed that Brazil would become a communist country and, thus, he wanted his children to focus on knowledge.
“We were required to study because he believed that the world was going to turn communist”, says Sayon. The father believed it would be impossible for the enormous gaps between rich and poor to last for too long. “He thought that money corrupts, so we couldn’t be a part of the business, make money, we had to study and graduate,” he says. The path of the youngest son, an admirer of Dr. Kildare in his childhood, was the University of São Paulo (USP).
Ricardo Sayon was a pediatrician for 16 years, worked for public services and institutes in the area, taught at the university. When he quit the practice, he left behind a successful private clinic. As a pediatrician, Sayon would show his acumen for business. He built a playground in his practice as to make a visit to the doctor not so scary for the children. “I would give treats, would go to (street) March 25th and buy blowouts, whistles. The trouble wasn’t for the kids to come into my clinic, but rather to leave it,” he says enthusiastically.
His life as a businessman began when he received, as inheritance, a land that was being used as a parking lot. Talking with a friend, Roberto Saba, Sayon’t business associate to this day, they decided to keep the parking lot open and manage it and do with it something innovative for the 80s: issuance of receipts and the control of memberships through a computer. Saba had a computing-services business and the two of them became partners in both businesses. It was the beginning of a parking lot chain called Pare Bem, which was sold by Sayon around four years ago. The computing-services office was closed later with the popularization of computers.
Ri Happy was created because Ricardo Sayon had a vacant property at the intersection of Pamplona and Lorena streets, in São Paulo, which was racking up costs and problems. The jewelry store that was occupying the place went bankrupt and the estate remained close for nearly a year. Annoyed with the situation, when the place had authorization to re-open, Sayon asked her wife, phonoaudiologist Juanita Sayon, to open a business there. She opened a toy store and named it “Ri Happy” so her husband would be happy. Friend Roberto Saba also joined the project.
Sayon was still working as a pediatrician, but in 1991 Ri Happy had four stores and wasn’t doing so well financially. “The money that Pare Bem would make, Ri Happy would spend it all and more,” says the businessman. The decision made was to close the chain and Sayon went up to toy manufacturer Estrela to return products. Once there, he got an advice from an executive to open even more stores – and good ones. Sayon took the challenge and decided to leave his medical practice aside for some time. “I said: well, I go there, spend six months, solve everything and come back,” he said.
After a talk with his partner and employee Maria Cecilia do Nascimento, a teacher who became the operational director of the company, they decided to invest in services. Ri Happy began to inform about immunization, prevention against violence against kids, sports, among other themes, and the employees began to teach the parents about the most adequate toys for each age. The staff would receive instruction on childhood. The ads in the newspapers brought activities for the kids, such as word searches and games.
The stores were decorated with many themes, such as pirates, and promoted campaigns, through which they would fulfill the dreams of an employee and a client of the same store. “When one of the stores was selected to fulfill the dream of an employee, someone from the community was also elected,” says Sayon. The company gave from wheelchairs to trips to Paris, renovations of houses and 15-year-olds birthday parties. When Ri Happy was sold it had 111 stores and Ricardo Sayon was being invited to give lectures about the case in Brazil and abroad.
Ri Happy’s buyer was the American corporation Carlyle. Sayon and Saba initially held on to 15% of shares, but in 2014 they sold their stake in the company. Pare Bem, other large business of Sayon, had 60-plus parking lots during its peak and was, at a time, Brazil’s second largest parking lot chain. It was also sold, almost at the same time of when they sold their remaining stake at Ri Happy.
Sayon is occasionally invited to give lectures on entrepreneurship and now fill his days with the management of the malls. For instance, the mall Shopping Pátio Pinda is a venture developed by him and his partner Saba. “Every entrepreneur has an itch: that life will only be complete if he does something,” says Sayon, when asked about the reasons for being involved in some many projects. Innovation always drove him, he admits.
In the space he occupies in an office building in Bela Vista district, there are some figures of little suns spread out, the symbol of Ri Happy, plus some symbols of Palmeiras – the team of which he’s a fan. A written Arab prayer decorates the wall behind his chair. A fan of his father, whose life story he tells with pride, Ricardo has much of Lebanon in his own story. Among the memories, the ones from his parent’s house, which was always with its doors open to the family’s friends.
“At Thursday’s supper and Sunday’s lunch, Arab food was always served. The doors were open to friends, mine’s and theirs. My mother would cook for 50 (people), she didn’t know how many would show up. You could do anything but couldn’t miss Thursday’s supper and Sunday’s lunch. Only if someone had died to miss those, otherwise you were kicked out of the family,” he jokes. His father had two groups of friends, one of them with only Lebanese friends. And Ricardo Sayon does the same: friends of Arab descent with whom he has been playing tranca (a card game) for over 30 years.
Sayon visited Lebanon around ten years ago and he’s planning to return this year with his two daughters. The businessman knows half of the world, but says that he’s never been with a people so “family“ and generous such as the Lebanese people. Even without any immediate family in the country, he says he was welcomed as a brother. “I went to visit the small house where my grandfather, Manoel Sayon, was born, a very simple house in Hasbaya, a very poor village. The Druse man that lived there invited me to come in, drink some juice, eat some dessert,” he says.
The invasion of the city by the Druze was exactly the reason by which Ricardo Sayon’s grandfather from his father’s side was sent to Brazil at the end of the 19th century when he was 15 years old. “(He) was one of the first Lebanese immigrants to arrive in Brazil,” says Sayon. He worked in a farm, sold products door-to-door and later opened a small grocery store at the community that later became the city of Ibitinga. An entrepreneur, Manoel’s businesses ranged from a farm to trade and industry.
Ricardo Sayon’s grandfather from his mother’s side, Rachid Rayes, also was a businessman, sold products door-to-door, opened a store, owned a farm. He settled in the city of Borborema. His grandmothers, also Lebanese, were homemakers. Despite being born in the countryside of the state of São Paulo, Sayon’s father and mother met in the capital of the state, when Sayon’s father spotted his future wife walking alongside the nuns near the Catholic school in which she attended. “He fell in love.“
In the trip that he’s planning to Lebanon, Ricardo Sayon wants his daughters to know the place of origin of the family. As a good Arab man, the businessman talks with proud and tenderness about his children – and of his wife, of his second marriage, that began 32 years ago. Recently, Sayon had a scare: lung cancer. It was an early diagnosis and he recovered. The illness brought new activities to his life: exercises and the smoking habit left behind.
Outspoken, enthusiastic and simple in style, it seems the businessman had answered the prayer stamped on his office’s wall: “My God! If you would give me wealth, don’t take away my happiness; if you give me strength, don’t take it away my good senses; if it was given to me to prosper, don’t allow me to lose my modesty.”
Translated by Sérgio Kakitani