ImagesRetailMEAwards-2014_Post-show-report

56 imagesretailme.comANNUAL 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 and
Dennis de Rond
Alasdair Lennox with
Patrick Fallmann
Rohini Rego with
Kavisha Pancholi
Barbara Kao and
Lucas Jiang
It’s more than just about
winning in a tough retail market
The 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 with
Nabeel 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 market
Superdry 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

MOST ADMIRED
FOOTWEAR & ACCESSORIES
MOST ADMIRED
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
BEAUTY & WELLNESS
MOST ADMIRED
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

MOST ADMIRED
PHARMACY & HEALTHCARE
MOST ADMIRED
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

MOST ADMIRED
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS
MOST ADMIRED RETAILER
OF 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

MOST ADMIRED
ENTERTAINMENT
MOST ADMIRED
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

MOST ADMIRED
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
FOOD SERVICE – QSR
Burhan Al Hashemi,
Vic Bagaria & Taleb
Al Saleh
Neeraj Tekchandani,
Vic Bagaria &
Amjad Al Salmi

MOST ADMIRED
MARKETING CAMPAIGN
OF THE YEAR
LIFESTYLE 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 RETAILER
OF THE YEAR - FOOD SERVICE
CASUAL DINING
Ssidarth Jham, Alex
Andarakis, Divakar
Singh & Andrew
Fernandes
Preetam Daniel,
Giovanni Biasco &
Manuel Baima

MOST ADMIRED
MARKETING CAMPAIGN
OF THE YEAR
MOST ADMIRED
SOCIAL 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 ADMIRED
STORE DESIGN OF THE YEAR
SPORTSWEAR RETAIL
MOST ADMIRED
RETAIL 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

MOST ADMIRED
LIFESTYLE RETAIL
MOST ADMIRED
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 ADMIRED
STORE DESIGN
OF THE YEAR
MOST ADMIRED
RISING 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 ADMIRED
ONLINE 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 ADMIRED
STORE 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 ADMIRED
CRM INITIATIVES
MOST ADMIRED
RESPONSIBLE 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 ADMIRED
INTERNATIONAL RETAILER
OF THE YEAR
MOST ADMIRED
RESPONSIBLE 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): Superdry
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Fast Fashion: Aeropostale
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Footwear & Accessories: Nine West
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Sportswear: Adventure HQ
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Children’s Wear: Carter’s
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Beauty & Wellness: Inglot
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Pharmacy & Healthcare: Life Healthcare Group
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Home& Office Improvement: THE One
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Consumer Electronics: Sharaf DG
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Entertainment: Yas Water World
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Luxury: Rivoli Group
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Luxury: Food & Grocery: Zoom
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Food Service (QSR): Tim Hortons
Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Food Service (casual dining): Sapori di BiCE
Most Admired Marketing Campaign of the Year (lifestyle): Adidas
Most Admired Marketing Campaign of the Year (general): Dubai Duty Free
Most Admired Social Media Campaign of the Year: Centrepoint
Most Admired Retail Launch of the Year: Adventure Zone
Most Admired Store Design of the Year (sportswear retail): Athlete’s Co
Most Admired Store Design of the Year (footwear retail): Charles & Keith
Most Admired Store Design of the Year (lifestyle retail): Le Chateau
Most Admired Store Design of the Year (general): Marina Home
Most Admired Rising Star Retailer of the Year: Fun Ville
Most Admired Online Retailer of the Year: Souq.com
Most Admired store Manager of the Year: Joel Omino (Sparky’s)
Most Admired Retailer of the Year – CRM Initiative: Club Apparel
Most Admired Responsible Retailer of the Year: THE One
Most Admired Responsible Retail Group of the Year: Landmark Group
Most Admired International Retailer of the Year: Aldo
Most Admired Middle East Retailer Group of the Year: Landmark Group
Selecting awardees was a
difficult task for the jury
It 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.

Knowledge partnerStrategic partner
Audit partner Awards partner
Research partner
global
innovation
award
Media partners - Middle East Media partners - IndiaMedia partners - Europe
Silver sponsor
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wik ilverS O L U T I O N S
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Supported by Technology partners
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