The SM Retail Group received the Best of the Best Award during the 2010 Retail Asia-Pacific Top 500 Awards held recently at the Regent Hotel in Beijing, China, highlighting its leadership not only in the Philippines, but also in the Asia-Pacific region.

This was the third consecutive year that the SM Retail Group was named the Best of the Best, and the seventh year in a row that SM won the Gold Award as the Philippines’ Top Retailer for the sixth year in a row.

Spearheaded by Retail Asia, the prestigious Singapore-based magazine five years ago, the Top 500 ranks retailers in 14 Asia-Pacific economies on sales turnover and sales productivity. The ranking continues to highlight companies that have become the movers and shakers in the region’s retail sector.

Drawing from Euromonitor International’s research and analysis of the retail industry around the world, analysts in the 14 Asia-Pacific economies featured did research for the 2009 edition. The latter included Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The top three retailers from each of the countries in the Asia-Pacific region were awarded Gold, Silver, and Bronze awards during the event; and the Best of the Best were selected from the Gold Awardees Local retailers cited included Mercury Drug and Rustans, which won the Silver and Bronze Awards, respectively, for the Philippines.

“The Best of the Best retailers have been meticulously assessed and judged by an independent jury as the crème de la crème among the echelons of Asia Pacific retailers,” says Steven HL Goh, Executive Chairman of Retail Asia Publishing.

Likewise, as a Gold Awardee, SM is among the Asia-Pacific retailers who have “retained their respective exalted position on account of their business volume and market leadership.”

Contemporary designs in new and newly renovated stores, more fashion merchandise to complement its basic lines, and innovative services have made it possible for the SM Retail Group’s Department stores to serve a broader base of customers in the Philippines.