Our congratulations to SM Supermalls, the country’s biggest mall operator that recently celebrated its 30th Anniversary at the SMX Convention Center with a gala night that saw SM’s loyal partners and supporters given awards and recognition. Leading the celebrations for this milestone in the history of SM are SM Prime Holdings president Hans Sy and SM Investments Corp. vice chairman Tessie Sy-Coson (second from left in photo) with notable personalities that include Nene Araneta with wife Stella Marquez-Araneta and Manny Pangilinan.
 
The gala event also served as SM’s way of showing gratitude to those who have been part of the SM family from the time they opened the very first mall at the SM City North EDSA in Quezon City.  Over 50 companies that represented top partners and locators won awards in various categories, and the most popular brands voted by customers through an online poll were also revealed.
 
As Hans noted, a lot has happened since the opening of the first SM mall three decades ago, with SM going global and keeping abreast of trends and technology to be attuned to the changing tastes of customers over the years.  One could even say that SM has changed the lifestyle of Filipinos, with the mall serving as a venue where families can spend quality time together.
 
According to Hans, they will be renovating some of the older malls to make them eco friendly. In fact, long before it became “fashionable” to be environment friendly, SM has undertaken a “green agenda” – ensuring that the malls they build will impact the environment and the public in a positive way. SM malls are designed in such a way that water and energy consumption are managed well. With the onset of climate change, SM has also invested in disaster risk reduction measures. An example is SM Masinag that was designed to help mitigate the flooding along Marcos Hi-way in Antipolo by incorporating a holding tank which collects rainwater not only from the mall’s roof deck but from neighboring subdivisions whose drainage systems are connected to that of the mall.
 
Just recently, SM opened its 55th mall (located in Caloocan City) last Friday, and according to Hans, they are looking forward to the next 30 years – targeting to open 100 malls all over the Philippines by 2020.