Crate & Barrel opens at SM Mega Fashion Hall
MANILA, Philippines - SM Retail through its subsidiary HMS Development Corporation and Crate & Barrel are opening the first Crate & Barrel store in Manila on Nov. 20 at Mega Fashion Hall. More stores will follow in the first quarter of 2015.
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 that brought their inventory, and became their first store fixtures. Working directly with European ateliers and factories to import their products, Crate & Barrel was among the first retailers to make modern tabletop and kitchenware 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.
SM Retail, the leading retail group in the Philippines, has over 50 years of experience in the industry. Its retail operations include a chain of department stores, supermarkets, and hypermarkets strategically located in key cities in the Philippines.
It also has a chain of specialty store formats that serve niche markets focusing on a wide selection of merchandise for each category like appliance stores, home stores, and toy superstores.
Beginning with a franchise of ACE Hardware and a joint venture with Watsons, SM’s retail group has also entered into partnerships with global retailers including Forever 21, Uniqlo, Suiteblanco, and Uno de 50.
SM Retail is part of SM Investments Corporation, one of the country’s largest conglomerates, which also has core businesses in mall operations, banking, property, and hotels, and conventions.
