Crate & Barrel opens at SM Mega Fashion Hall

MANILA, Philippines - Members of the expat community, corporate executives, celebrities, as well as home innovators and decorators recently gathered together to formally launch the first store of Crate & Barrel in Manila at the Mega Fashion Hall at SM Megamall. It was a great time to celebrate the much-awaited opening of the iconic store in Manila, but also its partnership with the SM Retail Group.

Crate &Barrel USA head of international visual merchandising April Young flew in to Manila to grace the opening along with director of construction John Moebes and other members of the team. SM Retail director Felicidad Sy, SM Prime Holdings, Inc. president Hans Sy, and SM Retail chairman Tessie Sy-Coson welcomed them along with SM EVP for controllership Ricky Lim, SM retail VP for business development Pascale Jimenez, and Crate & Barrel Philippines business unit head Jo Co Siy.

“We are happy to announce that the first Crate & Barrel store in Manila is now open at the SM Mega Fashion Hall,” says Crate and Barrel Interim CEO Adrian Mitchell. “In collaboration with our esteemed franchise partner, SM Retail Group, we are bringing in the best of Crate & Barrel and creating an exciting new retail synergy in Manila.”

Crate& Barrel’s entry into Manila is indeed creating a lot of retail excitement and synergy. Crate & Barrel opened its doors in 1962 as a family business started by Gordon and Carole Segal in Chicago, Illinois. The couple was inspired by the simple, well-designed, affordable products they had purchased on their honeymoon in Europe. The Segals decided to open a home furnishings store, calling it ‘Crate & Barrel’ after the shipping crates and barrels, which brought their inventory and became their first store fixtures. Working directly with European ateliers and factories to import their products, Crate and Barrel was among the first retailers to make modern tabletop and kitchenwares affordable to American consumers.

Today, Crate & Barrel is an international, multi-channel family of brands, known for exclusive housewares and furniture designs, excellent value and superb customer service. Owned by the Otto Group of Hamburg, Germany, since 1998, the company operates stores in most major North American markets as well as international franchise locations in Dubai, Singapore and Mexico.