The Philippine Retail Association (PRA) has awarded 21 outstanding names in the retailing scene that have shown noteworthy performance and have led the country’s booming retail industry in the past year.
In the recently held gala night for the 18th Outstanding Filipino Retailers and Shopping Centers of the Year (OFR-SCY), Dr. Andrew Tan received the prestigious PRA President’s Award this year, which served as the highlight of the evening.
Tan is the corporate founder and chairman of major property player Megaworld Corp., which is a primer in building office spaces for industries and the business-process outsourcing sector.
The PRA board gave Tan the title “Pillar of Mixed-Use Developments” due to the promise of his “live, work and play” concept that is evident in notable Megaworld townships such as the 18.5-hectare Eastwood City in Quezon City, as well as the 50-hectare McKinley Hill, 34.5-hectare McKinley West and 15.4-hectare Uptown Bonifacio.
Aside from Tan, other 20 retail brands—both local and foreign brands—were honored at the OFR-SCY held at the Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria at Ortigas Center in Pasig City.
Local retailer Robinsons Department Store snagged the top spot for the full-line department store category, while SM Hypermarket and SM Supermarket won the Best Hypermarket and Best Supermarket of 2014.
For the apparel category in fashion, Bench, Folded & Hung and Karimadon were awarded the Best Fashion Apparel brands for large, medium and small category, respectively. For shoes and bags still under the fashion segment, Sanuk ranked first for the medium-type Best Shoes and Bags brand, while Fino Leatherware Inc. won the Best Small-Type Shoes and Bags retailer.
In terms of services, Fix Bench Salon and Great Image triumphed as the Best Services Retailer for the medium and small category.
Handyman also ranked the highest among other home-improvement centers, and Saver’s Appliances Depot was commended as the Best Regional Retailer.
Specialty Retailers award for the large, medium and small categories were cornered by Pet Express, The Travel Club and Halo Mobile Club, respectively.
National Book Store was awarded the best retailer, while Mesa was recognized as the top small-type
food retailer.
When it comes to foreign brands, , Forever21 and Topman won the large and small categories of Best Fashion Apparel Foreign brands, respectively. For the medium-type shoes and bags segment, FitFlop was at the top spot.
Further, DIY shop True Value won the Best Home Improvement Center for foreign brands, while McDonald’s was the best in the food-retailing segment.
To complete the list, homegrown fashion brand Penshoppe was named the Global Retailer of the Year.
Evelyn Balmeo Salire, PRA secretary-general, said the annual recognition serves as PRA’s way of inspiring industry players to recalibrate their operations to be globally competitive.
“Retailers have become more aware of the stringent criteria for evaluating and judging the candidates and they know that when a company is awarded, they are truly world-class. This is why in the many years that we been presenting the awards, the number of nominees, including self-nominations, has consistently increased,” Salire said.
Dubbed as the “Retailers’ Oscars,” the gala night was attended by big names in the industry such as SM Group President Hans Sy; PRA Chairman Emeritus Samie Lim; PRA Chairman Frederick D. Go, who is also the president of Robinsons Group; PRA President Lorenzo C. Formoso, who is also the COO of Duty Free Philippines; Golden ABC Inc. CEO Bernie H. Liu, also the PRA vice president; and SM Retail Inc. President Jorge T. Mendiola, among others. Trade Secretary Gregory L. Domingo represented President Aquino for the awarding of the President’s Award to Tan.