SM was named the Philippines Top Retailer during the recent Retail Asia Top 500 Awards held in Tokyo, Japan. This is the fourth straight year in which SM was cited by this prestigious regional trade magazine, which honored top retailers from 14 economies.

“All our award winners are in many ways the crème dela crème companies of the region, “ says Steven HL Goh, Executive Chairman of Singapore based Retail Asia Publishing PTE Ltd. “ We assure they embody the many great attributes of best practices and success drivers in retailing. We hope that they could in one way or another provide a source of inspiration for the many growing retail companies, big and small, across the Asia-Pacific region.�?

Other recipients of the Gold Award were Australia’s Woolworths Limited, China’s Gome Elecrical Appliances, Hong Kong’s The Dairy Farm Group. India’s Pantaloon Retail, Indonesia’s Matahari, Japan’s Seven & I Holding, and Malaysia’s GCH Retail. New Zealand’s Foodstuff, Singapore’s Dairy Farm, South Korea’s Lotte Shopping, Taiwan’s President Chain Store, Thailand’s CP Seven Eleven, and Vietnam’s Saigon Co. were also in the list of star performers.

With its new directions to become a customer driven and result oriented company that focuses on teamwork and the entrepreneurial spirit, SM’s Department Store chain is currently undertaking renovation works on its major stores to enhance the shopping experience.

We constantly innovate to give our customers in-store services beyond their shopping needs,�? says SM, Inc. president Teresita Sy-Coson.

New innovations in store design will be evident in the stores at the SM Supermalls in North EDSA, Megamall, and Bacoor. The new design of the Megamall store departs from the usual mass merchandise set-up, targeting more upscale customers by offering better brands with emphasis on retail excitement.

The new design seeks to create a more relaxed shopping environment, mixing attidude and practicality. Color and lighting are used to create shopping choreography to guide customers around the store. The shopping environment uses very little color in the overall interiors, but splashes of color guide the customer’s eye with suprises throughout the store.

The SM malls’ expansion program this year will again provide store space to the department store and the rest of the retail group allowing it to expand aggressively. SM City Bacolod opened early this year in the southern Philippines, and the malls, SM City Taytay and The SM Supercenter in to date, SM has 31 department stores, 29 supermarkets, nine hypermarkets 37 appliance centers, 17 home stores 20 toy superstores, 31 fashion discount stores, 14 sports stores, two baby specialty stores, and four stores showcasing Philippine products.

SM also has 34 ACE Hardware stores, a franchise of US base ACE Hardware; and 169 Watsons stores, a joint ventures with the Hutchison-Whampoa Group of Hong Kong. Marionnaud, an upscale cosmetics store affiliated with the AS Watsons Group, opened its first store at Mall of Asia last year.