SM wins Retail Asia’s Best of the Best Award

The SM Retail Group was a recipient of the Best of the Best Award during the 2008 Retail Asia-Pacific Top 500 Awards held recently at the Venetian Hotel-Resort in Macau, making it one of the region’s premier retailers. During the same event, it also won the Gold Award as the Philippines’ top retailer for the fifth year in a row.
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. Other Best of the Best awardees included Matahari of Indonesia, GCH Retail in Malaysia, and NTUC Fairprice of Singapore. Local retailers cited included Mercury Drug and Rustans, which won the Silver and Bronze Awards, respectively, for the Philippines.
In a “year that was subjected to an enormous repertoire of ups and downs . . . Asian economies soared to a fifth straight year of growth in 2007,” says Steven H L Goh, Executive Chairman of Retail Asia. “And Asia’s retail industry prospered and grew.”
“The clear inference is the tremendous resilience, tenacity, and entrepreneurial spirit of Asia-Pacific’s top retailers in coping with market fluctuations,” he adds. “It is also a clear testimony to their strategic and tactical capability in successful retailing – forging the compelling value proposition for their customers and delivering the best possible customer experience at all times.”