|
PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release
12 December 2007
Innovation Awards 2007: Planet Retail Announces Winners
In its second year now, Planet Retail's Innovation Awards have once again generated a host of exciting entries from around the world. In both mature and evolving markets, companies are striving to create destination retail, hotel and catering outlets that set them apart from the competition and embrace latest consumer lifestyles and media. From grocery to drugstores to entertainment outlets, boundaries are increasingly blurring as functional retail environments merge with social networking concepts to create a single entity for shopping and leisure.
The winners for 2007 are as follows:
MOST INNOVATIVE NEW CONCEPTS
Hypermarket & Superstore: Pick 'n Pay, South Africa
In September 2007, Pick 'n Pay opened its 'new generation' hypermarket in the township of Soweto outside Johannesburg. As the anchor tenant in the township's first shopping mall, Pick 'n Pay has access to a new market of some one million residents. The store's success can already be seen in its high footfall levels, with customers enjoying state-of-the-art delicatessen counters, fresh food and other service sections. It has been identified as having the potential to "change the face of retailing in Africa."
Supermarket/Neighbourhood Store: Fresh & Easy, USA
Unique for the US market, Fresh & Easy trades from around 1,000 square metres with a strong emphasis on ready meals, many of which are prepared in Tesco's own kitchens. It has a carefully edited product range of around 3,500 SKUs, with a focus on fresh and healthy foods, at affordable prices. At around 50%, private label penetration is particularly high amongst US grocers, with products backed by Tesco's guarantee that none of them contain added trans fats, artificial colours or flavours and have limited amounts of preservatives. Outlets only have self-checkouts, with assistance available where necessary.
Discount Store: Dia Market, Spain
In a drive to combine discount prices with convenience shopping, Carrefour has opened a new format trading under the Dia Market banner in Madrid. Operating from a sales area of less than 500 square metres in urban areas, the store offers fresh products (40% of the assortment), ready meals, impulse items, grocery staples and magazines at low Dia prices. With extended opening hours, from 9.30am to 9.30pm, stores hope to capture time-poor commuters. Unlike typical no-frills Dia stores, greater attention has been given to creating a more appealing instore environment.
Convenience/Forecourt Store: LAWSON Plus, Japan
Taking learnings from its LAWSON STORE 100 format and combining it with a typical neighbourhood outlet, LAWSON has created an urban hybrid convenience store. It features an extended range of perishable foods including fruit and vegetables, sashimi and prepared meals - unique for the Japanese convenience store sector. Aimed at housewives and the elderly, the stores have proved a great success in this saturated market.
Drugstore: Reliance Wellness, India
The launch of Reliance Wellness marks a new phase in the development of pharmacies and drugstores in the evolving Indian market. Developed by Reliance Retail, the first store, trading from 232 square metres, opened in Hyderabad earlier this year. It stocks more than 5,000 SKUs, spanning medicines to healthcare, comprising fitness equipment, allopathic, ayurvedic and homeopathic medicines, nutrition, skincare, personal products, books and magazines on health and yoga, and selected sports equipment. The store also includes an optical division, an eye testing centre and provides advisory services on nutritional products and educational programmes on health.
Virtual Store: Domino's Pizza, UK, Ireland and USA
Taking the hassle out of ordering take-home pizza, Domino's has created an online service, featuring customers' favourites. In addition, orders can be sent by text via mobile phones, with the advantage that they are directly inputted to the ordering system cutting staff costs and ensuring greater accuracy.
Entertainment, Electronics and Office Supply (EEO): Courts, Singapore
Redefining the retail experience, Courts has revamped its flagship unit in Tampines Retail Park, Singapore. Trading from 10,000 square metres over three storeys, exciting promotional features have been incorporated into the design. The Countdown Corner for example comprises promotional deals that are only available for a limited period, with oversized yellow countdown clocks showing the time left for each deal to run. In addition, the Hot off the Docks area resembles a giant open shipping container showcasing the latest deals on pallets, straight from the docks of Singapore.
Restaurants: McDonald's, Europe
In response to changing lifestyles, which are seeing the emergence of café culture and mobile communications, McDonald's is adapting its restaurants across Europe to reposition them away from fast food eateries to more comfortable, relaxing environments. As part of this plan it has introduced higher quality burgers, more differentiated coffees (latte, cappuccino etc), free wi-fi access and more comfortable seating areas encouraging longer dwell times.
Hotels: Marriott, USA and Europe
Marriott has taken an alternative angle on boutique hotels with the creation of a themed 'Marriott- Nickelodeon' concept. Developed in conjunction with Nickelodeon, a unit of Viacom International, the first hotel is scheduled to open in 2010. It is designed to represent a new concept for travellers seeking fun and adventure. Guests will experience Nick-themed resort activities throughout the hotel, including a variety of restaurant options such as the 'NickToons Café', which will provide daily 'character' breakfasts as well as special event evenings. Buffet options and simple menu items will be available, as well as a 'grab & go' area hosting food chain vendors and an onsite convenience store.
MOST INNOVATIVE PRIVATE LABEL INITIATIVE
Carrefour, France
French hypermarket retailer Carrefour has collaborated with fashion designer Max Azria to launch a new range of fashionable womenswear, 'Tex by Max Azria.' The move marks the first time that a hypermarket chain in France has entered a partnership with a fashion designer and is clearly aimed at providing a low price alternative to fashion retailers such as H&M and Zara. Twelve new ranges will be rolled out each year until 2012.
MOST EFFECTIVE PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN
7-Eleven, USA
In July, residents near 12 7-Eleven stores in the US woke to find a bit of Springfield on their doorstep. In an innovative tie-in with the release of The Simpsons Movie, 7-Eleven Inc converted selected stores to the cartoon Kwik E-Mart format, complete with life-size Homers and products from the show. In a further case of fiction becoming reality, a number of cartoon products found their way onto shelves across 7-Eleven stores nationwide.
GREENEST EFFORTS
Costco, USA
Warehouse club operator Costco has launched an environmental initiative that actually pays shoppers to recycle. In partnership with GreenSight Technologies, Costco has created a 'Trade-In & Recycle Program' that encourages its members to recycle unwanted electronic items in exchange for a Costco gift voucher. Shoppers log onto Costco.com, enter information about the product they wish to recycle, and are given a quote on the amount they will receive. A UPS shipping label is then emailed to the shopper who posts the recycled goods free of charge. A Costco gift card is mailed to the shopper, thereby rewarding them for recycling and at the same time driving traffic back into the store.
TECHNOLOGY
Seven & I, Japan
Seven & I has launched an electronic payment service called 'Nanaco' across some 13,000 stores. Acting as both an electronic payment card and sophisticated loyalty scheme, users receive one point for every 100 yen they spend in 7-Eleven stores, with each point exchangeable for 1 yen in e-money. Nanaco services are available in two forms: an integrated-circuit card and a mobile phone with an e-money function.
SUPPLY CHAIN
SPAR, Austria
In conjunction with its logistics provider Daily Service Tiefkühllogistik, SPAR Austria has found a solution to controlling temperatures in the deep-frozen supply chain, using RFID technology together with a sensor. The sensor consists of a polymer gel pulp that has the same defrost attributes as ice cream or fish. This solution represents a groundbreaking discovery for the global frozen food industry. SPAR Austria and its service partner continually measure the temperature with this 'DTLS' sensor, save the data and send it via RFID to handheld computer devices (from Unitech). Store managers sign on the devices that they have received the correctly frozen products.
A copy of this article, Planet Retail Innovation Awards 2007, is available from www.planetretail.net.
- Ends -
For further information please contact:
Press:
Michael Berggren, Head of Marketing
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7728 4988, Email: michael.berggren@planetretail.net
Analyst:
Corinne Millar, Publications Manager
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7728 4967, Email: corinne.millar@planetretail.net
Sales:
Sally Curtis, Sales and Marketing Director
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7728 4984, Email: sally.curtis@planetretail.net
NOTES TO EDITORS
A copy of this article is available to the media on request.
Additional Information:
 HYPERMARKET & SUPERSTORE WINNER: The opening of a 'new generation' hypermarket by Pick 'n Pay in the township of Soweto outside Johannesburg could signal a new beginning for grocery retailing in South Africa  EEO WINNER: Special promotional areas in this Courts superstore help to "redefine the retail experience" MOST EFFECTIVE PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN WINNER: Seven & I ties in with The Simpsons Movie to recreate Kwik E-Mart stores
About Planet Retail:
Planet Retail is the leading provider of intelligence on the global retail and foodservice industries, monitoring more than 5,000 "banner" operations as well as market developments in 211 countries. With over 15 years of industry insight, Planet Retail is a brand trusted by more than 3,000 organisations worldwide, delivering up-to-the-minute news, analysis, market research and digital media via www.planetretail.net. Planet Retail has offices in London, Frankfurt and Tokyo.
|