Where retail people get recognised for excellent service

Representatives of the 242 retail outlets receiving the accredited certficates for 2008/09

Recipients of the certificate of excellence gather for a shot with others

Parkson Pavilion bagged the overall Best Retail Outlet trophy and certificate for excellence. From left: Minister of domestic trade and consumers affairs Dato' Shahrir Abdul Samad and MRA president Eddy Chan

Ricky Soon (right) receiving the award for the phamacy category from Dato' Shahrir

CK Tan (right), the recipient for the speciality store category

Where retail people get recognised
Text by Laura Lee, Photos by Anthony Tan

Malaysia Retailers Association (MRA) president Eddy Chan reminded the retail fraternity that they would need each other even more in the future development of their industry at its recent16th annual dinner 2008, which was attended by close to 2,000 retailers and their business partners.

His speech echoed what had been highlighted at the recent Council of Asian Shopping Centres (CASC) conference 2008 about this year being an “extremely challenging year”.

Global economic conditions have also dramatically changed the whole world’s business environment, including our retail industry.

Chan, who is also Sogo (KL) Department Store Sdn Bhd chief executive officer, said in recent months, words like credit crunch, global financial crisis and turmoil have been splashed across the front page of the local media. Although the price of crude oil has declined recently, the worse may not be over yet.

(As at press time, the price of crude oil has dipped below US$55 per barrel, the lowest in three years.)

He added that countries like Singapore and Germany had declared that they are in recession. Many may follow suit soon. Many countries also lamented on the high rate of inflation and rising unemployment as the main cause of their predicaments.

“Malaysia, being a relatively small country, and as resilient as we seem to be, may not be spared from the negative impact of the unfavourable external forces. Let us hope that we can sustain our business as long as we can.

While MRA has forecast that retail industry growth rate for 2008 be revised downwards to about 4% to 5%, Chan said the association “will continue to play its role in collaborating, converging and diverting the focus of feasible solutions in a unified voice to the relevant authorities”.

It will work closely with them to bring about improved retail sentiments and amicable solutions.

“We appeal to the government to provide more incentives such as tax relief for store refurbishments, preferential or off-peak electricity tariffs, etc to the retail industry in supporting and encouraging our quest in lowering operating costs, which in turn, will help retailers to overcome and survive in these very tough and difficult market conditions.”

While applauding the ministry of domestic trade and consumer affairs on its price reduction campaign, Chan said the retailers would only be able to reduce prices at their respective stores if they get price reductions from their manufacturers and suppliers.

Calling this a collective corporate social responsibility, he said, “All of us have a role to play to support the government and make this price reduction campaign a really successful one.”

The 242 retail outlets, which participated in the sixth MRA “Retail Service & Courtesy” Standards of Excellence Accreditation Programme 2008/09, received their accreditation last night from the minister of domestic trade and consumers affairs Dato’ Shahrir Abdul Samad.

Among them, 12 received certificates of merit. They are:

* Royal Selangor The Gardens and Light Street outlets,
* Parkson Subang Parade and KLCC outlets,
* Mydin Wholesale Hypermarket USJ Subang Jaya and Kuala Terengganu outlets,
* Guardian Jalan Dato’ Sheikh (Seremban) and Taman Nusa Bistari outlets,
* Habib Semua House and Queensbay Mall outlets, and
* Jusco Bukit Tinggi and Permas Jaya outlets.

Six certificates of excellence were also given out for different categories.

* Parkson Pavilion, which won the department store category, also bagged the

Overall Best Retail Outlet. Its store general manager (GM) Kam Siew Kheong

received the certification.
* The fashion and fashion accessory category was clinched by Smart Connexion

One Utama.
* The pharmacy category, which went to Guardian Giant Taiping, was received by

GCH Retail (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd operations GM, Ricky Soon.
* Marks & Spencer The Gardens emerged the winner for the speciality store

category. Its store manager CK Tan received the award.
* The hypermarket category won by Tesco Ampang was received by its store

general manager Gunasegaran Narayansamy.
* The supermarket category was won by Jusco Seremban 2. Its store manager

Heng Ai Ling braved through the after office hours' traffic to receive the Best

Supermarket award.

As one of the judges and a media personnel, I am privileged to bring you this piece of news first hand as no media was invited to the dinner and awards function on 21 November, 2008.

Incidentally, both the CASC and MRA annual dinner chose One World Hotel’s Imperial Ballroom as the preferred venue for their functions.

According to Dato’ Shahrir’s speech delivered earlier at MRA dinner, the Malaysian retail industry recorded a relatively strong growth of 12.1% in sales for the first quarter of 2008 compared to the same period last year.

“Despite the energy and food crisis that have been affecting the average Malaysian consumers, the performance for the first six months of 2008 was much higher than the earlier estimate of 8.4% made by retailers a few months ago. It is the ministry fervent hope that the retail industry will continue to register higher growth rate for the balance of the year,” he added.

I found MRA’s website, www.mra.com.my, to contain outdated information. Reason given by its staff is that the website is under construction.