Top 500 Asia-Pacific awards – an affair to remember

Hosted by NYCU Media, publisher of Retail Asia, to honour this year’s Top 500 retailers in 14 economies in Asia, the gala event held at the Solaire Resort & Casino at Manila by the Bay, was an affair to remember, a night of sharing of insights and international networking. Vanessa Ching reports ...

Some 100 top retailers and invited guests gathered on October 29 at the glitzy Solaire Resort & Casino grand ballroom in Manila, the Philippines, for NYCU Media’s Retail Asia-Pacific Top 500 Awards and gala dinner to honour and celebrate the top performers in the Asia-Pacific retail industry.

The Top 500 Awards programme salutes retailers in 14 major Asia-Pacific economies, namely Australia, China, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, The Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The Top 500 ranking covers the 14 key markets as well as 10 retail formats. The retailers are ranked by total retail sales turnover and the report also provides companies’ sales per sqm, an invaluable benchmark for professionals in the retail industry.

The annual Retail Asia-Pacific Top 500 ranking is produced in partnership with Euromonitor International as the Official Market Information Provider and KPMG as the Principal Programme Partner. Sponsors for this year’s event are UnionPay International, SSI Schaefer, Honeywell Asia, Opium and wine sponsor, Manny O Wines. This event is in its 12th edition.

The sharing of insights, fine wines and a delectable menu were the order of the night. Award winners, top retailers and guests mingled and networked with each other, enjoying the convivial setting.

Andrew Yeo, the founding publisher of Retail Asia and owner of NYCU Media Pte Ltd, in his welcome address, said: “Retailing today calls for leaders to be far-sighted, nimble, adaptable and resourceful — and, most important, to be customer-centric when working out new strategies to woo consumers into shopping with them.”

❝I like to extend our heartiest congratulations to all retailers in the 2015 Top 500 list. You have not only proven yourselves to be adaptable & versatile but also able to maintain the critical core value that all retailers must nurture in their drive to retain customers — TRUST.❞ — Andrew Yeo, Founder of NYCU Media and Publisher of Retail Asia

He added: “As we all know, the retail industry has been greatly disrupted by digital technologies. Many traditional retailers have had to embrace omni-channel retailing, changing their stores into ‘bricks and clicks’.

“The new millennials, who comprise 30% of the world’s population, are becoming more and more demanding; therefore, providing seamless retailing is no more an option, but a matter of survival.

“Indeed, many of the retailers who are listed in this year’s Retail Asia-Pacific Top 500 have overcome the many challenges confronting our industry. They have revamped their operations to provide seamless shopping experiences for today’s highly connected shoppers.

“On behalf of NYCU Media, the new owner and publisher of Retail Asia, I like to extend our heartiest congratulations to all retailers in the 2015 Top 500 list.

“You have not only proven yourselves to be adaptable and versatile but also able to maintain the critical core value that all retailers must nurture in their drive to retain customers — TRUST.”

Yeo also expressed the commitment of the NYCU Media team to bring ‘News You Can Use’ to retailers in the region to help them in their business decision-making and day-to-day operations.

He said: “Last but not least, I like to announce NYCU’s latest initiative — we are unveiling here tonight FoodBizAsia, a fully digital B2B monthly magazine written specially for professionals working in the F&B and hospitality sectors.
“You can download free of charge the FoodBizAsia yellow icon from the App Store or Google’s Play Store.”

Euromonitor’s head of retailing, Michelle Grant, in her speech, said Asia-Pacific would be the largest driver of growth globally through to 2019. Retail sales in Asia-Pacific are expected to increase by US$1 trillion through to 2019, accounting for 50% of global growth.

According to Grant, each economy and channel is different, but some common trends seen by Euromonitor include large-format grocery stores performing well as consumers shift to a driving-based culture and adopt a one-stop-shopping mentality while urbanisation is driving demand for convenience options; the appetite for luxury and fashion will drive strong growth for jewellery and watch specialists as well as apparel and footwear specialists.

❝The Top 500 Awards is always an event that we look forward to because it is a recognition of the team’s effort and hard work. Holding it in Manila this year was a blessing because the Filipino retailers came full force to support it. Thank you and congratulations to Retail Asia.❞ — Chelo C Monasterio, President, The SM Store, Philippines

Grant also said that responsible store network growth would always play a key role in retailing.

However, retailers recognise that many sales are shifting online. Thus, Euromonitor expects that online sales penetration rate will reach 10% by 2019, up from 6% in 2014. Of the US$570 billion online sales expected, 22% of those sales will be conducted through a mobile device.

“It’s up to retailers to take advantage of this technology shift,” said Grant.

Gold, Silver & Bronze Awards
Top three retailers in each of the 14 economies are presented the gold, silver and bronze trophies, while companies ranked fourth to 10th position are awarded certificates of distinction.

Among the top three retailers in 14 key markets who were present to receive the award were, for Gold: China Resources Enterprise, AS Watson Group, Indomarco Prismatama, AEON Group Japan, GCH Retail Malaysia, SM Retail and Saigon Co.Op.

For Silver and Bronze awards, those present to receive the trophies included Dairy Farm Hong Kong, Sumber Alfaria Trijaya, AEON Group Malaysia, Puregold Price Club, Dairy Farm (Singapore), Mobile World, Mercury Drug Corp and Sheng Siong Group.

Best-of-the-Best

The 2015 three ‘Best-of-the-Best Awards’ went to The Good Guys, China Resources Enterprise and Mercury Drug Corp.

The three companies were recognised by a panel of four independent judges for their achievement of overall business performance, value proposition, core competencies/competitive advantage and business strategy.

Professor Dr Bernd Hallier, one of the judges, said: “The Top 500 Awards show that retail is a family — all Asia-Pacific players have been united in a peaceful competition in achieving success in business.

“It’s great to see retailers coming together for a common business goal, as well as achieving corporate social responsibility, and certainly, much more can be done in this area.”