SM wins Retail Asia's 'Best of the Best' Award

MANILA, Philippines - The SM Retail Group received the Best of the Best Award during the 2009 Retail Asia-Pacific Top 500 Awards held recently at the COEX Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul, Korea, highlighting its leadership not only in the Philippines, but also in the Asia-Pacific region.

This was the second consecutive year that the SM Retail Group was named the Best of the Best, and the sixth year in a row that SM won the Gold Award as the Philippines’ Top Retailer. The SM Department Store also received the Country Award for the Philippines by the Federation of Asia Pacific Retailers Association during the closing ceremonies of the 14th Asia Pacific Retailers Convention and Exhibition also in Seoul, Korea.

Spearheaded by Retail Asia, the prestigious Singapore based magazine five years ago, the Top 500 ranks retailers in 14 Asia-Pacific economies on sales turnover and sales productivity. The ranking continues to highlight companies that have become the movers and shakers in the region’s retail sector.

Drawing from Euromonitor International’s research and analysis of the retail industry around the world, analysts in the 14 Asia-Pacific economies featured did research for the 2008 edition. The latter included Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The top three retailers from each of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region were awarded Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards during the event; and the Best of the Best were selected from the Gold Awardees. Local retailers cited included Mercury Drug and Rustans, which won the Silver and Bronze Awards, respectively, for the Philippines.

“The 2009, Retail Asia-Pacific Top 500 Ranking was a pleasant surprise in that the combined sales turnover of the region’s top 500 retailers has expanded instead of contracting in the wake of what has been widely regarded as the world’s gravest economic turmoil,” says Steven HL Goh, executive chairman of Retail Asia Publishing Pte Ltd. “Total sales turnover grew at a sterling double digit rate of 13.7 percent.”

While one of the reasons for this better-than-expected performance “is that the region’s retailers had not yet felt the full brunt of the economic storm,’ Goh emphasizes that “ this does not detract from the extent of the achievement of all those Asia-Pacific retailers who had made it to this year’s Top 500 ranking.”

“As a retailer, change is in our DNA,” says Teresita Sy-Coson, president of SM’s Non-Food Retail Group. “We always innovate and make everything new and exciting.”

After years of highlighting basic merchandise at very affordable prices, the SM Department Store, which lies at the heart of SM’s retail group, has returned to its fashion roots. Changes in the marketplace have prompted the company to become a fashion store once more.

The change is evident in the store’s merchandise, which has more mastige brands or designer fashion items, allowing customers to transform runway looks into reality. Renovations of premiere stores and exciting design concepts in new stores have added a contemporary feel to the shopping experience. Innovative tie-ups, on the other hand, like those of Philippine Fashion Week, seem to be bringing SM closer to its goal.

At the same time, SM continues to be known for affordable lifestyle shopping for fashion, for the home, for gadgets, for children and babies. The store has the widest assortment of merchandise in the country, ranging from basic items for everyday needs to fashion items for discriminating shoppers, making it top of mind when people think of shopping.

SM, which has 36 branches nationwide, has become part of the lives of many Filipinos, not only because of its merchandise but also because of its one stop shopping experience and service. Customers also go to the store to pay their utility and bankcard bills, buy tickets for the hottest shows in town, and exchange foreign currency.

It also has a rewards program that offers perks and services to more than four million members. Prestige card members have a lounge in premium stores where they can relax in between shopping and get special services.