The 8th annual Middle East Retail Academy (MERA) Awards Gala Dinner took place on Wednesday 13th 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, Director and Co-Founder at DISTREE Events at DISTREE Events, said: “Vendors and distributors at the Gala Dinner took part in a live electronic vote to determine the overall winner in each retailer category. Nominations were determined using continuous feedback from vendors during the last 12 months through the MERA Monthly Monitor Report (MMR).”
Vendors and distributors eligible to vote were requested to assess retailers on a range of factors including customer satisfaction, sales growth, corporate social responsibility, in-store experience, vendor relations, retail innovation, service levels and multichannel success.
The full list of winners for the retailer categories at the ‘MERA: 2015 Awards’, as voted for by vendors and distributors, is as follows:
- Emax – Overall UAE Retailer of the Year
- Virgin Megastore – Specialist UAE Retailer of the Year
- Extra – Saudi Arabia Retailer of the Year*
- Lulu – Bahrain Retailer of the Year
- Alghnaim (X-cite) – Kuwait Retailer of the Year
- Lulu – Oman Retailer of the Year
- Carrefour – Qatar Retailer of the Year
- Carrefour – Egypt Retailer of the Year
- SmartBuy – Jordan Retailer of the Year
- Khoury Home – Lebanon Retailer of the Year
- Souq.com – Middle East E-tailer of the Year
The ‘MERA: 2015 Awards’ also included four categories for distributors. The nominations were determined using feedback from the MMR and input from the DISTREE Events selection committee. During the Gala Dinner, retailers voted live to select the overall distributor winners.
Retailers eligible to vote were requested to assess distributors on a range of factors including channel management strategy, inventory management, margin potential, co-marketing schemes, merchandising activity, product training, customer support, vendor relations and overall retailer engagement. The official list of winners for the distributor categories at the ‘MERA: 2015 Awards’, as voted for by retailers, is as follows:
- Redington – Volume Distributor of the Year
- GCT – Retail Distributor of the Year
- Max Electronics – Accessories Distributor of the Year
- Gadgitech – Lifestyle Distributor of the Year
“We congratulate all the nominated retailers and distributors for the ‘MERA: 2015 Awards’ on their achievements in the regional channel,” added Hemraj. “We continue to be impressed by the speed of retail channel development in the Middle East, and the business agility of retailers and distributors leading this market evolution.”
*Jarir Bookstore was excluded from the Saudi Arabia Retailer of the Year category, as the company does not currently participate in MERA research activities in the region.
