MANILA, Philippines — SM Retail received the gold award as the Philippines’ Top Retailer during the recent 14th Retail Asia-Pacific Top 500 Awards Ceremony and gala dinner held recently at The Westin Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
Each year, the three top retail companies across 10 formats in 14 Asia Pacific economies receive gold, silver, and bronze top retailing awards.
SM Retail has consistently been a gold award recipient, and was elevated to the Hall of Fame in 2011.
Other Philippine retailers awarded during the evening were Mercury Drug Corporation and Puregold Price Club, who received the silver and bronze award, respectively, while two other companies affiliated with the SM Group, Watsons Philippines and ACE Hardware, who received certificates of distinction.
SM, which was founded by Henry Sy Sr. in 1958 has been part of the lives of millions of Filipinos for over 50 years. In its retail network, The SM Store continues to take the lead in store innovations as it expands in both urban and rural communities through its new and newly renovated stores around the Philippines. It also continues to adapt innovations in technology to serve customers in an increasingly digital world.
Apart from The SM Store, SM’s Retail Group also has specialty store formats that serve niche markets by focusing on a wide selection of merchandise for each category.
Part of this is the Food Retail Group, which recently unified its three formats – SM Supermarket, SM Hypermarket, and Savemore – under one brand name known as SM Markets to emphasize the group’s commitment to bring the same friendly service, wide selection, and great value across all its stores. The Non-Food Group, on the other hand, has store formats including appliance stores, fashion discount and toy superstores, as well as Kultura Filipino, a showcase of the best Filipino products.
SM also has tie-ups with global brands – a franchise with ACE Hardware, a joint venture with Watsons, and more recently with major global fashion retailers Forever 21 and Uniqlo. It also has franchises with American home retailer Crate & Barrel and UK’s The Body Shop; and has partnerships with UK’s Joseph and Spanish brand Sfera.