Pantaloon Retail is ‘EMERGING MARKET RETAILER OF THE YEAR’ at World Retail Awards
India’s leading retailer, Pantaloon Retail, was crowned “Emerging Market Retailer of the Year” on March 29th at the World Retail Awards, which took place during the first ever World Retail Congress in Barcelona.
Voted for by a Grand Jury that includes many of the world’s top retailers and senior industry experts, Pantaloon secured the award for its success in developing multiple retailing formats to cater for a broad cross section of Indian society. A multiple-format strategy has helped the retailer to capture a diverse customer base, and to customize its delivery format to suit local needs.
Some of its leading formats include Pantaloons, a departmental chain positioned on the ‘Fresh Fashion’ platform; Central, a seamless mall located in the heart of large Indian cities; Food Bazaar, a food and grocery chain; Collection, home furnishing; EZone, electronics and consumer durables, and futurebazaar.com, etailing.
In 2006, Pantaloon captured footfall of around 150 million people throughout its 120 stores. Since the launch of its first outlet some 9 years ago, the company has developed 3.5 million square feet of retail space across 30 Indian cities, and is set to touch a turnover of 1 billion US dollars by June 2007.
In addition to its own success, the company has raised a significant amount in private equity investments for the development of retail real estate and consumer brands in India, boosting the country’s retail economy. It has also joined with Italian insurance major Generali to retail insurance products, and has future plans to offer consumer credit and other financial services.
The well established Indian company saw off competition from a wealth of other successful businesses currently operating in the emerging markets, including Hindustan Petroleum (India); Matahari (Indonesia); Edgars Consolidated Stores (South Africa); B&Q Asia (Hong Kong) and Shufersal (Israel).
Ian McGarrigle, congress director of the World Retail Congress, comments, “Our judges felt that Pantaloon Retail demonstrated a strong market positioning strategy with a diverse range of multi-format retail operations.
“These awards are designed to honour the retailers who are leading the way nationally and internationally, demonstrating enormous success and excellence in their operations, and proving to be an inspiration to the industry as a whole. Congratulations to Pantaloon Retail for their success in this category”.
Organised in association with KSA (Kurt Salmon Associates), the World Retail Awards were held during a glittering ceremony at the Palau Nacional, Barcelona to recognise and celebrate global excellence across different disciplines, sectors and borders, rewarding outstanding economic, creative and ethical achievements. The Emerging Market Retail of the Year category was sponsored by SAS.
Other category winners during the evening were:
• Responsible Retailer of the Year (Sponsored by Fawaz Alhokair): Marks & Spencer
• Marketing Campaign of the Year (Sponsored by Fujitsu): Sainsbury’s, “Active Kids 2005-2006″
• Innovative Format of the Year (Sponsored by Fawaz Alhokair): American Girl Place designed by Gensler
• Best Use of Technology (Sponsored by SAP): Vodafone with Fujitsu and Q-MATIC
• Retail Destination of the Year (Sponsored by Aldar): Mall of the Emirates
Many major industry players were also short listed for the titles “Retailer of the Year” and “Multi Market Retailer of the Year”, with the grand jury selecting:
• Multi Market Retailer of the Year (Sponsored by OC&C Strategy Consultants): Ikea
• Retailer of the Year (Sponsored by KSA): Inditex
Other awards included the unveiling of the “Consumer Icon of the Year” (sponsored by Nokia) which honoured Kate Moss for her massive influence on retail trends, and the induction of three legendary names into the “Retail Hall of Fame” (sponsored by IBM) which honours the role played by individual industry leaders in creating and leading retail businesses. The Hall of Fame inductees were Ingvar Kamprad, Founder and chairman – Ikea; Masatoshi Ito, Honorary chairman – Ito Yokado; and Gordon Segal, Founder and CEO – Crate & Barrell.
The World Retail Awards Grand Jury includes Paul Charron, Chairman Emeritus, Liz Claiborne; Sir Geoff Mulcahy, Chairman, British Retail Consortium; Rick Darling, President, Li & Fung USA; Bernie Brooks, Chief Executive, Myer; Marty Wikstrom, Partner, Atelier Management LLC and Non-Executive Director, Compagnie Financière Richemont SA; Simon Sussman, CEO, Woolworths South Africa; Ravi Dahr, Director, Yale Center for Customer Insights; Jennifer Woo, President, Lane Crawford, Bill Pace, CEO, Kurt Salmon Associates; and David Bosshart, CEO, GDI.
The World Retail Awards were organised by Emap in association with KSA (Kurt Salmon Associates), the premier global management and consulting firm specializing in the retail and CPG industries. The categories and judging criteria were developed with the support of the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute to ensure independence, fairness and transparency. www.worldretailawards.com
