ABU DHABI, 27 May 2014 – The seventh annual Middle East Retail Academy (MERA) Awards Gala Dinner took place on Wednesday 21st May in conjunction with DISTREE Middle East. The ICT and consumer electronics (CE) channel event was held at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi. Hundreds of senior vendor, distributor and retail channel executives attended the Gala Dinner.
Farouk Hemraj, CEO at DISTREE Events, said: “Retailers at the Gala Dinner took part in a live electronic vote to determine the overall winners in each vendor and distributor category. We congratulate all companies that were nominated for awards. It serves as recognition of outstanding retail channel engagement during the last 12 months.”
This year’s nominee selection process in each product category involved a combination of continuous Middle East channel feedback from the last 12 months, independent market data and input from a DISTREE Events selection committee. The continuous feedback included the statistics recorded through the MERA Monthly Monitor Report (MMR).
The nominees for the following three award categories were determined by a VIP Jury during this year’s DISTREE Middle East: Outstanding Vendor Performance; DISTREE Middle East 2014 – Best in Show, New Vendor of the Year. The VIP Jury included John Bohan, Jigsaw Business Solutions; Benoit van den Bulcke, Blueprint Execution; Howard Davies, CONTEXT; Philip Hughes, Pumpkin Consulting, and KS Vasudevan, Navo.
The full list of winners for the 17 vendor and distributor categories at the ‘MERA: 2014 Awards’ were as follows:
PCs: Retail Vendor of the Year – DELL (46% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Acer, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba]
Tablets: Retail Vendor of the Year – LENOVO (32% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Asus, Eurostar, Huawei, Prestigio, Touchmate]
PC Accessories: Retail Vendor of the Year – GENIUS (43% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Belkin, Logitech, Microsoft, Targus]
Tablet & Phone Accessories: Retail Vendor of the Year – PROMATE (50% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Belkin, Casemate, Cellularline, Targus]
Imaging: Retail Vendor of the Year – CANON (41% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Fujifilm, GoPro, Nikon, Sony]
Storage: Retail Vendor of the Year – SEAGATE (38% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Sandisk, Toshiba, Transcend, WD]
Smartphones: Retail Vendor of the Year – HUAWEI (47% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Blackberry, HTC, Nokia, Sony]
Home Networking: Retail Vendor of the Year – LINKSYS (50% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Belkin, D-Link, Edimax, TP-Link]
Software: Retail Vendor of the Year – KASPERSKY (43% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Bitdefender, Eset, Microsoft, Norton]
Audio Accessories: Retail Vendor of the Year – BEATS (38% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Bose, Logitech, Sennheiser, TDK]
Wearable Tech & Connected Devices: Retail Vendor of the Year – FITBIT (41% of final vote)
[Also nominated: GoPro, Jawbone, Pebble, Xtouch]
Outstanding Vendor Performance – LENOVO (37% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Dell, HP, Huawei, Toshiba]
DISTREE Middle East 2014: Best in Show – PARROT (33% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Belkin Linksys, Electrolux, Motorola, Xtouch]
New Vendor of the Year – ENERGY SISTEM (42% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Hisense, Huawei, Quantum, Xtouch]
Volume Distributor of the Year – REDINGTON (46% of final vote)
[Also nominated: BDL, FDC, Jumbo, Metra]
Retail Distributor of the Year – GCT (33% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Grand Stores, ITE, Redington Lifestyle, Trigon]
Accessories Distributor of the Year – MAX ELECTRONICS (40% of final vote)
[Also nominated: Gadgitech, Jurassic, Lionfish, Shift]
Hemraj added: “The DISTREE Events selection committee focused this year’s nominations on companies that continue to drive the development of a strong Middle East retail channel community through their involvement in both MERA’s monthly report service and ongoing support for DISTREE Middle East. Companies that did not meet the required standard were excluded from the final list of official nominations.”
