Celebrating retail excellence - Middle East Retail … of Motorola – Zebra Group L to R: Graeme...

56 imagesretailme.com ANNUAL 2014

Celebrating retail excellence

L to R: Gogi George, a guest, Salim MA, V Nandakumar, John K Varghese & Anoop Gopal

A guest with Maher El Issaoui & Maarten Jan de Wit Lee Spinola, Weam Alhila & Mohamad Jaber

Siegrid Althuizen andDennis de Rond

Alasdair Lennox withPatrick Fallmann

Rohini Rego with Kavisha Pancholi

Barbara Kao and Lucas Jiang

It’s more than just about winning in a tough retail marketThe retail stars sparkled at a glittering awards ceremony to honour the achievements of the Middle East’s most successful and innovative retailers in 2014! Graced by about 500 professionals, specialists and VIP guests representing the who’s who of the retail industry, the gala evening show was co-hosted by singer and emcee Cara J. Roberts and business journalist and news anchor Shaily Chopra, with UAE-based high-energy stand-up comedienne Mina Liccione regaling the audience with her witty humour.

“The Images RetailME Awards honour the Middle East’s most successful and innovative retailers. It’s not about winning or losing. It’s about inspiring and rewarding achievement, motivating entrepreneurs and honouring the thousands of retail professionals across the Middle East who labour day and night in stores and offices to give their customers unforgettable moments of joy. That’s why the awards can be seen as platform for retailers across the region and around the world,” observes Amitabh Taneja, chairman and managing director of the Images Group.

“This year saw a substantial increase in the number of participating entries, which made the selection process even more challenging. Our expert panel of judges and in-house support team reviewed each entry in-depth before declaring the awardees of the evening,” he adds.

It’s no easy feat achieving excellence in the retail markets of the Middle East.

The region’s retail fraternity came together on November 3 at Conrad Hotel in Dubai during the fourth edition of the Middle East Retail Forum (MRF), the largest gathering of ideas, innovations, concepts and minds in the business of retailing, to celebrate excellence and felicitate the stars in the business of retail at the Images RetailME Awards 2014, Lawrence Pinto reports

57imagesretailme.com ANNUAL 2014

Burhan Al Hashemi and Taleb Al Saleh Mohit Ahuja and Hasan Ahmed AlSouqi Al Ali

Davide Padoa, Mohammad Alawi with Luca Cappuccitti

Jasim Saif Al Abdouli, Hilal Ahmed Almuharam & Saif Al Neemi

L to R: Rajesh Singh, Sunil Varma, Adil Saleem, Yasmin Alabdeen, Tina Oberoi, Natalie Larsson, Karun Puri, Jalaj Chaudhary & Luke Rolfe

Gabirel De Andrade withNabeel Chowdhuri

Mohammed Fabine with Kunhi Ahamad Kalandoor

Meher Singh with Huneid Saleh Babat

Rozita Norouzi and Rima Balbaki

Unlike the US and Europe, each market in the region differs from the next, with each having their very individualistic characteristics and dynamics. Some such as the UAE, seen as the financial and retail hub of the region, do not have a stable and fixed consumer base, with retailers having to cater to a changing spectrum of residents coming from more than a hundred nationalities, and the consumer mix being further complicated by hundreds of thousands of transient tourists from across the globe who flock to the city’s showpiece shopping-cum-leisure destinations through the year, especially during festival times. That makes for singular market conditions where retailers and industry professionals have to keep their wits about them and innovate if they are to perform well. And many of them do face up to these challenges exceedingly well, as seen in the large number of excellent submissions for the awards.

There were 30 awardees from among the 128 short-listed nominees who made it to the final round in categories ranging from fashion, food services, leisure, entertainment to home & office improvement and Middle East Group of the Year. The awardees came from major retail groups as well as single brand retailers, demonstrating the ability of professionals across the board to keep pace with the rapidly-changing dynamics of the business of retail.


Gaurav and Kritika Tandon with Nandakumar

Barbora Jergusova and Mounzir Abdul Motalib

L to R: Francis Thejes, Shelah Samera, Kunal Shetty& Sushil Chandra Mahat

L to R: Khurram Anwar, Peter Schwallie, Kishor Kulkarni,Hycinth Silveira & Ravi Singh from THE One

Krishna Kishore and Clive Stanley

Muhammad Faraz, Nimish Makvana with Abdul Qadeer Sajjad

Tim Jones with Tina Oberoi

Clare Abad, Alexander Grant & Jenny Bartlett from THE One

Grace Entereso, Rola Faour and Rupkatha Bhowmick

Tomy Joseph, Bijesh Vijayan, Krishna Kumar & James K Varghese

Murray Bell with Silvio Liedtke


Members of Motorola – Zebra Group

L to R: Graeme Synman , Ben Barker, Girish Kumar, Bijoy Bose, Wim Raath, Brendan Le Riche & Brendan Cottle -- from AdventureHQ

L to R: Mohit Ahuja, Hans Anthony, Denny Santimano & Sachin Banodkar

Mariya Menshikova with Sunny Sehgal

Maher El Issaoui, Mohamad Jaber & Lee SpinolaGuests with Pratap TP and Shankar Balan

Mohamed Adel Nabi with Rana Mohamed El Naggar


MOST ADMIRED RETAILER OF THE YEAR

PREMIUM FASHION

Nimish Makwana handing over the winning retailers' ballot to Lawrence Pinto Gavin Fisher, Marina Bachvarova, Aparna Seth & Firoz Ali Khan

Mina Liccione Cara J Roberts Shaily Chopra

The awardees were quick movers in the marketSuperdry was the first awardee of the evening in the premium fashion category. Represented by Al Khayyat Investments, the brand has been growing faster than its competition since its launch in 2011, recording 53% growth in 2013–14 year-to-date, minus its new stores.Wael Al Arawi receiving the award from Mohammad Alawi



FOOTWEAR & ACCESSORIES


FAST FASHION

Aeropostale was the unanimous choice in the fast fashion category. Represented by the Apparel Group, the brand has grown to over 30 stores in just five years across the GCC. This year, it opened six stores in Saudi Arabia, Oman and UAE till August and plans to open three more by December.

Nine West, another brand under the Apparel Group umbrella, took the award in the footwear and accessories category, expanding rapidly to 64 stores spread across the GCC countries, Russia, Poland and India since the launch of its first store in Lamcy Plaza, Dubai in 1999.

L to R: Jiteendra Bulani, Reena Bedi, Mariya Menshikova, Mohammad Alawi & Neeraj Tekchandani

L to R: Rachna Vazirani, Sangeeta Rajkumari, Mohamed Galal, Reshma Shetty & Neeraj Tekchandani


MOST ADMIRED RETAILER OF THE YEARBEAUTY & WELLNESS


SPORTSWARE

Adventure HQ, launched in Dubai’s Time Square Centre with a 30,000 sqft store in 2011, was the winner in the sportswear category. The brand has since opened two more 4,000 sqft stores in Dubai and moved to the next level with a 40,000 sqft store in Dalma Mall Abu Dhabi that is a combination of retail and Adventure Zone.

The beauty & wellness category award was bagged by Inglot, launched five years ago in the UAE by the Apparel Group. The brand has seen rapid growth in this short span of time and is targeting a portfolio of 50 stores in the GCC by end-2014, up from 30 stores in June.

L to R: Graeme Synman , Brendan Le Riche ,

Brendan Cottle, Girish Kumar, Sam Whittam

– Adventure HQ & Mohamed Galal –

founder, Tasweeq Malls

L to R: Pat Bakey, Reena Bedi,

Charu Kapoor, Champa Hirani & Natasha D Souza



PHARMACY & HEALTHCARE


CHILDREN’S WEAR

Carter’s was the awardee in the children’s wear category. Represented by Lal’s Group, the brand opened its first Middle East store in 2007 and is reputedly among the fastest growing children’s wear brands in the region. It currently has eight stores in the GCC - five in the UAE and one each in Bahrain, Oman and Qatar.

Life Healthcare Group once again showed its resilience in picking up the award in the pharmacy and healthcare category. Having commenced its journey as a retail pharmacy group in 1996, the Life Group presently stands tall in the industry after 17 years of growth with 100+ retail outlets comprising pharmacies and healthcare hypermarkets.

L to R: Pat Bakey, Karun Puri, Tina Oberoi, Tanya Ganwani & Luke Rolfe

L to R: Krishna Kishore, Vivek, Clive Stanley, Adam Abdul Nazar, Mark Thomson, Ayham Daas & Nishanth Ali



CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

MOST ADMIRED RETAILEROF THE YEAR HOME & OFFICE

IMPROVEMENT

THE One retained its ‘numero uno’ status by clinching the home & office improvement category award. THE One Total Home Experience opened its first store in 1996 in Abu Dhabi and now has 18 stores in eight countries across the Middle East and North Africa (Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Tunisia and the UAE), with over 660 employees. The brand

also becomes the first Middle East Winner of the 2014–15 gia Middle East Award, automatically qualifying for the gia – Global Innovation Award Programme, organised by the International Home + Housewares Show (to be held in Chicago from March 7-to-10, 2015), as the 2014 Images RetailME Award winner. It was presented a certificate from gia for qualifying for the finals.

Jenny Bartlett, DV Shenoy & THE One team with Pat Bakey

L to R: Marlon Santana, Pankaj Kumar, Hardeep

Singh, Nithin Nandakumar, Murray

Bell, Ramkumar Sunkari, Rishi Kishor

Gupta, Anand Rao & Rajinder Valecha



ENTERTAINMENT


LUXURY

Sharaf DG, the UAE’s first big-box consumer electronics concept, which started its journey in 2005 with a 15,000 sqft store in Dubai, was again the unanimous choice of the jury in consumer electronics category. The brand’s perseverance and hard work has paid off, with 26 stores in the UAE and Bahrain today, and more in the offing.

The entertainment category was one of the toughest to judge, the competition between Dubai Aquarium & Underwater Zoo, Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, Fun City, Sparky’s and Yas Water World Abu Dhabi being formidable. The jury eventually chose Yas Water World, the largest waterpark in the UAE capital, spread over 15 hectares with the promise of a thrilling range of 45 rides, slides and attractions.

Rivoli Group, which bagged the award in the luxury category, is among the largest importers, retailers and distributors of a vast array of luxury products. It has established a footprint in the UAE, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain with a portfolio of over 120 prestigious brands and over 385 stores in the region.

Leander Werner de Wit & Murray Bell

L to R: Deepthi Varghese, Abraham Koshy, a guest, Nimish Makvana & Abhishek Thiagarajan



FOOD & GROCERY

The food and grocery category was no walkover either, with Gèant Easy, Sharjah Cooperative Society and Zoom in the fray. But the winner was Zoom convenience store, launched in 2009 in the UAE. It currently has 100 stores in the ENOC/EPPCO service station network; 41 Zoom C-stores in the Dubai Metro; 15 standalone Zoom supermarkets and groceries in Dubai

and Ras Al Khaimah; and one Zoom store in the ENOC/Aldrees service station in Dammam, KSA.

Canadian coffee and baked goods brand Tim Hortons was the winner of the food service (QSR) category. The brand came to the Middle East in December 2011 through a franchise agreement with the UAE-based Apparel Group and continues to

MOST ADMIRED RETAILER OF THE YEARFOOD SERVICE – QSR

Burhan Al Hashemi, Vic Bagaria & Taleb Al Saleh

Neeraj Tekchandani, Vic Bagaria & Amjad Al Salmi


MOST ADMIREDMARKETING CAMPAIGN

OF THE YEARLIFESTYLE RETAIL

move towards its goal of 220 multi-format restaurants with several new locations currently under construction in GCC.

Sapori di BiCE, which opened its first restaurant in Dubai at Citywalk, Jumeirah, was the jury’s choice in the food service (casual dining) category. The newly launched local concept was established in the UAE under the helm of the award-

winning BICE Restaurant Group, which has over 40 restaurants spanning the globe.

Adidas was bestowed the marketing campaign award in the lifestyle category. The objective of the company’s recent campaign was to become the most talked about, active and visible brand in the lead-up to and during the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

MOST ADMIRED RETAILEROF THE YEAR - FOOD SERVICE

CASUAL DINING

Ssidarth Jham, Alex Andarakis, Divakar

Singh & Andrew Fernandes

Preetam Daniel, Giovanni Biasco &

Manuel Baima


MOST ADMIREDMARKETING CAMPAIGN

OF THE YEAR

MOST ADMIREDSOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN

OF THE YEAR

Dubai Duty Free took the award in the marketing campaign (general) category for its 30th anniversary campaign to consolidate the DDF brand; raise awareness of its success story; engage its customers in an innovative way; recognise and acknowledge its staff and suppliers; and increase sales.

The social media campaign award went to the Landmark Group’s Centrepoint. Launched in Kuwait in 2005, Centrepoint is the largest non-food retailer with an aggregate retail footprint of five million sqft across the MENA region.

Alex Andarakis, R. K Ananthan & Michael Schmidt

Rupal Panjani, Maher El Issaoui &

Shalini Sharma


MOST ADMIREDSTORE DESIGN OF THE YEAR

SPORTSWEAR RETAIL

MOST ADMIREDRETAIL LAUNCH

OF THE YEAR

Adventure Zone, launched initially as a store-in-store concept by Dubai’s Adventure HQ, was chosen as the retail launch of the year. The first store to add excitement and theatre to the retail environment, it was so well received by customers that it was subsequently expanded as a stand-alone business model.

The store design award in the sportswear retail category went to Athletes Co, a multi-brand footwear concept that found it was imperative to create a distinctive and unique design that enhances the shopping experience.

L to R: Maher El Issaoui, Graeme Synman, Brendan Le Riche, Bijoy Bose, Sam Whittam, Ben Barker, Brendan Cottle, Darren King & Girish Kumar

L to R: Shelah Samera, Rahul Batavia, Wasim Khalik, Davide Padoa, Siddharth Dixit & Neeraj Tekchandani



LIFESTYLE RETAIL


FOOTWEAR RETAIL

Charles and Keith walked away with the store design award in the footwear retail category with its visual merchandising that has evolved from the ordinary to extraordinary. Sleek modern furnishings create an intimate store environment and luxurious ambience.

The store design award in the lifestyle retail category was bagged by Le Chateau, a brand that opened its doors in The Dubai Mall in February, 2014. One of its flagship stores globally, the clean, sleek and functional design of The Dubai Mall store sets it apart from the brand’s previous concept stores.

Davide Padoa, Anuradha Dhawan, Lany Vasudevan &

Michel Farah

Alasdair Lennox, Pratibha Ladkani,

Punit Mehta & Jai Chatrani


MOST ADMIREDSTORE DESIGN

OF THE YEAR

MOST ADMIREDRISING STAR RETAILER

OF THE YEAR

The store design award in the general category went to Marina Home. The interior design concept of its 27,000 sqft flagship store at Mall of the Emirates, inspired by ‘The New York Loft’ look and Hamburg’s fashionable ‘Warehouse District’ can be classified as modern industrial.

The rising star retailer of the year was Fun Ville, the 17,677 sqft community family entertainment centre opened in August 2013 in Ezdan Mall in the Al-Gharrafa area of Doha, Qatar.

Alasdair Lennox and Khurshid Vakil

L to R: Silvio Liedtke, Steve Odak, Aparna Seth, Marina Bachvarova, Gavin Fisher & Firoz Ali Khan


MOST ADMIREDONLINE RETAILER

OF THE YEAR

Souq.com was chosen the online retailer of the year. The largest e-commerce site in the Arab world and among the largest online megastores in the Middle East with a catalogue of over 500,000 products in over 20 categories, the Dubai-headquartered Souq, launched in 2005, attracts over 30 million visitors and 10 million unique visitors every month.

MOST ADMIREDSTORE MANAGER

OF THE YEAR

Joel Omino

Joel Omino was adjudged store manager of the year in a tough contest between eight candidates. Employed with the Saudi-based Al-Hokair Group’s Sparky’s family entertainment centres, he has over five years’ experience in the UAE entertainment industry, rising from a junior employee to corporate management within a short span.

Ronaldo Mouchawar with Steve Odak

Joel Omino from Sparky’s with

team RetailME


MOST ADMIREDRETAILER OF THE YEAR

CRM INITIATIVES

MOST ADMIREDRESPONSIBLE RETAILER

OF THE YEAR

Club Apparel , the card-less loyalty programme of the Apparel Group, was chosen for the CRM Initiatives award, which covers over 50 brands across 450 stores in the UAE. Members can purchase goods against their accumulated points at any of the group’s participating stores.

THE One, chosen as the responsible retailer of the year, prefers the term ‘socially responsible investment’ to ‘corporate social responsibility’. Its initiatives include ethical sourcing of goods, supporting and employing differently-abled individuals, local volunteering and, most importantly, its BIG IDEA - global education through THE Onederworld, the brand’s sustainable village community programme.

T P Pratap with the Apparel Group team

Jenny Bartlett, DV Shenoy & THE One team with T P Pratap


MOST ADMIREDINTERNATIONAL RETAILER

OF THE YEAR

MOST ADMIREDRESPONSIBLE RETAIL GROUP

OF THE YEAR

The Landmark Group won the responsible retail group of the year award for its ‘Beat Diabetes’ initiative that is part of its CSR mission of ‘creating sustainable value’ and giving back to society regardless of the market or where it operates by ‘creating exceptional value for all lives we touch’.

The international retailer of the year award was clinched by Aldo, launched in the UAE in 2001 and currently operating more than 130 Aldo Shoes and Aldo Accessories retail stores across the Middle East, India, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

Neelesh Bhatnager, James K Varghese &

Sabina Khandwani

L to R: Bhaskar Ramachandran,

Neeraj Tekchandani, Amitabh Taneja,

Salim MA, Sachin Banodkar & Rima

Balbaki


The Landmark Group retained the Middle East Retailer of the Year award, completing 40 successful years in business. The Group is one of the largest and most successful retail organisations in the Middle East and India, operating over 1,800 outlets encompassing over 24 million sqft across the Middle East, Africa and the Indian sub-continent.

Amitabh Taneja, Neelesh Bhatnagar with the Landmark Group team


And the awardees are …Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Fashion (premium): SuperdryMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Fast Fashion: Aeropostale Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Footwear & Accessories: Nine WestMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Sportswear: Adventure HQMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Children’s Wear: Carter’sMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Beauty & Wellness: InglotMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Pharmacy & Healthcare: Life Healthcare GroupMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Home& Office Improvement: THE OneMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Consumer Electronics: Sharaf DGMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Entertainment: Yas Water WorldMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Luxury: Rivoli GroupMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Luxury: Food & Grocery: ZoomMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Food Service (QSR): Tim HortonsMost Admired Retailer of the Year: Food Service (casual dining): Sapori di BiCEMost Admired Marketing Campaign of the Year (lifestyle): AdidasMost Admired Marketing Campaign of the Year (general): Dubai Duty Free Most Admired Social Media Campaign of the Year: CentrepointMost Admired Retail Launch of the Year: Adventure ZoneMost Admired Store Design of the Year (sportswear retail): Athlete’s CoMost Admired Store Design of the Year (footwear retail): Charles & KeithMost Admired Store Design of the Year (lifestyle retail): Le ChateauMost Admired Store Design of the Year (general): Marina HomeMost Admired Rising Star Retailer of the Year: Fun VilleMost Admired Online Retailer of the Year: Souq.comMost Admired store Manager of the Year: Joel Omino (Sparky’s) Most Admired Retailer of the Year – CRM Initiative: Club ApparelMost Admired Responsible Retailer of the Year: THE OneMost Admired Responsible Retail Group of the Year: Landmark GroupMost Admired International Retailer of the Year: AldoMost Admired Middle East Retailer Group of the Year: Landmark Group

Selecting awardees was a difficult task for the juryIt was no walkover for the awardees, the contest being heated in every category, with the quality and content of submissions making the task doubly difficult for the jury comprising prominent names in the local, regional and international retail industry. They included Mohammad Alawi, CEO, Red Sea Markets & Co, Saudi Arabia; Alasdair Lennox, executive creative director for EMEA at FITCH; Mohamed Galal, chairman, Tasweeq Shopping Malls Egypt; Alexander John Andarakis, founder and managing director, UAE-based Andarakis Advisory Services; Davide Padoa, CEO, Design International (UK); Murray Bell, managing director-retail for Dubai Festival City Mall; Avishesha Bhojani, Group CEO, BPG; and Roy Higgs, president, US-based Roy Higgs International.

The selection process was one of the industry’s best kept secrets, with everything strictly confidential in the interests of the spirit of competition. Following the review rounds in which all submissions were examined and judged, the jury forwarded the score sheets to results auditor Crowe Horwath, who tallied the final results. The Crowe Horwath team invested valuable time to meticulously sift through large amounts of data before arriving at the names of the 2014 awardees, which were made public during the awards ceremony.


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