PRA, DTI honor best & brightest retailers for 2003

Seven of the country’s biggest and brightest names in retailing romped off with the industry’s most coveted 2003 Outstanding Filipino Retailers (OFR) of the Year and Shopping Center of the Year Awards recently at the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel.

A joint undertaking of the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA), the national organization of retailers in the country, and the Department of Trade & Industry (DTI), the award seeks to recognize top outstanding retailers who have epitomized the model of a successful retailer in terms of success and good ethical practices. Trade and Industry secretary Norman Hocson represented Secretary Mar Roxas II during the Awards.

Islands Souvenirs won the Outstanding Filipino Retailer award for the Small Scale Fashion category for the second consecutive year, thus earning its rightful place in the Hall of Fame. Islands Souvenirs has over a hundred branches all over the country and has successfully expanded its network in the US, Japan and Singapore.

PCX, last year’s PRA Most Promising Retailer and another multi-awarded retailer bagged the award for the medium scale- non-fashion category. Celine, the 1999 winner in the same category of the OFR Awards and another multi-awarded retailer with over 25 years experience in the shoe industry, won in the medium scale-fashion category. Both were also winners in the Ayala Merchants Awards.

Handyman, the fastest growing local hardware and home improvement chain in the country, bagged the category specialist award.

The PRA and DTI also named Beauty Bar and Papyvore as the Most Promising Retailers of the Year, Beauty Bar, of the Stores Specialists Group, won the award for its distinctive concept and exciting brands and products not available anywhere else in the country. Papyvore, barely three years in the business, has captured the reading public’s eye with its wide range of magazines and publications that caters to the varied interests of the reading public.

Shangri-La Plaza bagged the "Shopping Center of the Year" award for their innovative marketing and promotions programs that have created a shopping ambience that has strengthened its position as a premier shopping center.