What: The first LEGO Shop of the future in Switzerland will open its doors at Manor Geneva.

Why it is important: The shop-in-shop follows a new concept of LEGO stores focusing on experience and digitalization with a focus for everyone, not only children.

The 100 square metre shop-in-shop at Manor Geneva will offer giant models, a digital play table, and Digibox which brings LEGO sets to life through augmented reality. The concept emphasises that the experience is for children and adults alike with a range of challenging LEGO sets meant for advanced fans.

There will be a series of events to celebrate the opening from a speed construction context, to a DJ, to a showcase with the winners of the French edition of the LEGO Masters 2021.

Switzerland's first LEGO Shop of the future opens its doors in Manor Geneva ( in French)

What: El Corte Inglés completes its supply chain sustainability plan by a new approach to packaging

Why it is important: The company is well advanced in the process and might be showing the way for other IADS members.

El Corte Inglés has set new targets related to their sustainability strategy: all plastic packaging to be removed (both in B2C and B2B) by 2025 in the private label business (a sizeable effort given the number and the size of these businesses), the whole supply chain has until 2030 to be using only renewable energy, which goes for instance through the use of vehicles using alternative fuel, concentrating a maximum of deliveries in the same go, and the review of all third party suppliers.

This is part of the Residuo Cero plan, launched in 2019, which initially looked after the supply chain in all logistic platforms, and which is now extending to the packaging.

El Corte Ingles doubles down on sustainability 

What: Falabella has hired Amelia, the leading company in conversational business artificial intelligence software as a digital services assistant to improve the internal experience of its 100,000 employees with 24-hour internal support, 7 days a week.

Why is it important: Falabella is looking to streamline support ticket handling and eliminating long wait times for their IT services, such as password resets and account services. In doing so they can free up time and resources of their IT team to focus on more challenging problems.

Falabella users can now easily interact with her through conversational AI for help through voice and chat.

With headquarters located in New York City, and offices in 15 countries, this technology is impacting over 200 brands across different industries internationally.

Falabella hires AI assistant to improve employee IT services (Spanish)

What: The 5 branches of The Mall Group were awarded the MEA Energy Awards and received investment in the modification of high-efficiency equipment.

Why it is important: The investment in the modification of high-efficiency equipment is led by Khun Maythinee Suvarnapunya, Chief Project Development Officer, and Dr. Chatree Phongwilai, Vice President-System Engineering.

The Mall Group wins MEA Energy Awards 2022

What: El Corte Inglés Group reported revenue growth of 21.93% to EUR 12.51 billion in 2021.

Why it is important: They also saw an increase in Q1 2022 performance topping that of Q1 2019.Growth was driven by healthy business momentum, cost streamlining, and good management decisions, putting the Group back on the growth track and leaving it profitable. Despite the difficulties caused by successive Covid variants, the lag in the recovery in tourism, the challenging economic environment, and the unprecedented surge in energy prices.

El Corte Inglés Group managed to post a gross profit of EUR 3.9 billion (year-on-year growth of 30.5%), EBITDA of EUR 804 million (growth of EUR 756 million), and a net profit of EUR 120 million. The retail business was the growth engine, accounting for revenue of EUR 11.3 billion, underpinned by a strong recovery in fashion, where sales increased by close to 49% from 2020. Online sales also fared particularly well, accounting for 12.3% of total department store sales.

The Group's healthy earnings performance accompanied by well-executed cost-cutting was rewarded by the main rating agencies, which raised the outlook for the credit ratings assigned to El Corte Inglés to just below investment-grade status. Their assessments were further buoyed by two significant developments: repayment of the first EUR 600-million notes issue, in March 2022; and the refinancing agreement reached with the Group's pool of banks, for up to EUR 2.6 billion, ushering in lower costs and more advantageous terms equivalent to those fetched by investment-grade issuers.

Thanks to growth in operating cash flow, the Group had reduced its debt to EUR 3.51 billion at 28 February 2022. Having since closed the transaction with Mutua, debt has come down significantly further, to stand at a 15-year low of EUR 2.56 billion.

El Corte Inglés reports revenue growth in 2021

El Corte Inglés Group consolidates its positive evolution

What: Tilli inaugurated its new premises on the ground floor of Galeries Lafayette in Lyon La Part-Dieu.

Why it is important: Galeries Lafayette continues their commitment to a more circular and reasoned fashion by welcoming Tilli, a French start-up specializing in retouching and repair founded by Beryl de Labouchere, Antoinette Fine and Benjamin Michel for a first pilot deployed in the heart of its Lyon Part Dieu store.

This modern retouching is a space for reinventing clothing and linen by inviting each customer to reconnect with the figure of the craftsman through a community of passionate stylists, modellers and couturiers, called "les Tillistes".

The objective for Galeries Lafayette was for clothes to last longer and also be transformed. This is an arrival that is fully in line with the Go For Good approach initiated by Galeries Lafayette, with the aim of deploying more widely within the French network of stores in the future.

The new Tilli alteration shop at Galeries Lafayette

SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE 

What: Throughout the month of June, visitors will learn about the history of Dom Pérignon and the process of creating champagne thanks to a phygital museum. For the first time in Mexico, customers will also enjoy a personalization service through a laser engraving process on metal shields.

Why it is important: Champagne selling in department stores recently gained traction and generates important revenue as it's the case at Samaritaine in Paris with Veuve Cliquot and Moët & Chandon.

Visitors can also enjoy a glass of Vintage 2012 at the Dom Pérignon bar cozy space. Vintages and special editions can be purchased through Dom Pérignon's private sales service.

El Palacio de Hierro hosts the first Dom Pérignon pop-up store in Mexico

What: An extrasensory initiative called 'The Selfie Experience' arrived at El Palacio de Hierro in CDMX.

Why it is important: With this proposal, El Palacio de Hierro seeks to make instagramable backgrounds for customers to use during their visit at the department store.

Palacio de Hierro stated that it emphasized the power of selfies using extrasensory technology in order to give the photos a better finish. "The world changed the day we discovered the power of a selfie and nothing was ever the same. This form of self-portrait has evolved along with technology."

The Selfie Experience is made up of several backgrounds to take selfies alone or with friends. In the complex, there are spaces with mirrors, lights, images, and textures for people to prepare their best smile.

The immersive space for taking Instagram photos is located on the third floor of Palacio de Hierro Polanco. To enter The Selfie Experience you do not need to make a reservation or pay a fee.

El Palacio de Hierro's 'The Selfie Experience' Pictures 

El Palacio de Hierro's 'The Selfie Experience'

What: The expansion of Breuningerland in Ludwigsburg has been stopped. The Mannheim Administrative Court ruled in favour of the municipalities of Bietigheim-Bissingen and Tamm, which are against the plans.

Why it is important: Breuninger and the city of Ludwigsburg agreed on a compromise solution to expand the area by 2500 sqm instead of 10,000 sqm originally planned.

NEWS Court overturns Breuninger's extension in Ludwigsburg

What: El Palacio de Hierro and TPG Architects have won Gold at the Shop Awards for Perisur's remodeling.

Why is it important: The Design Awards celebrate achievements in areas such as new store design, renovations, fixtures, visual presentation projects, and in-store communications. Entries are cited for excellence in design, originality in the use of space and materials, and quality of concept execution.

El Palacio de Hierro and TPG Architecture won gold in the department store category for their new remodel in the Perisur flagship store.

TPG has been entrusted with creating thoughtful designs for Palacio locations over the years. The Perisur flagship captures the aesthetic and timeframe of two historical moments: the 1940s residential development of Los Jardines del Pedregal de San Angel, and the 1968 Olympics held in Mexico City.

El Palacio de Hierro won Gold at Shop Awards

What:  Xi'an is a city with a strong potential, even though it does not have either the size or the power of Beijing and Shanghai, and SKP was the first retailer to sense it.

Why it is important: SKP is planning to double down on Xi'an by opening a SKP-S location, just like in Beijing, where the SKP-S location is praised for its quality and edgy approach.

Although Shanghai and Beijing dominate the Chinese luxury market, other and lesser-known destinations are also important in terms of consumption. Xi'an is a good example, by being the 10th city in terms of luxury consumption in China, with 12.95mn citizens (the 8th most populous city in China) and the 24th largest GDP in the country (growing +13.7% vs. 2019).

SKP has led the way in terms of luxury consumption, by opening the Xi'an 20-floors store in 2018 and bringing all luxury behemoth brands to the city. SKP Xi'an is 3 times the size of Harrods and showcases more than 1,000 brands on 250,000 square metres (60% of those brands entered Xi'an with SKP). In 2021, SKP Xi'an reported a revenue of USD $1.26bn, the 18th most successful mall in China. It is believed that the extremely popular SKP VIP black card membership is strongly contributing to the success of SKP in the city.

The article also explores other notable retail hotspots in Xi'an: SAGA Mall (where stores are not directly managed by luxury brands like at SKP), and Zhongda International Shopping Mall, which is less high end than SKP and SAGA. Luxury shoppers in the region include what the article calls the "Coal bosses", mine owners who made their money in natural resources extraction (the region is rich in coal and other natural resources), but also a rising middle class working in the booming logistics and technological sector (Alibaba and JD.com have offices in the city), and customers from the north western cities where luxury brands are not yet massively deployed (Gansu, Ningxia, Qinghai, Xinjiang).

SKP dominates the Xi'an booming luxury market 

What: Galeries Lafayette will pamper French creativity this summer through an ambitious program of events combining music, fashion and NFT.

Why is it important: Galeries Lafayette on boulevard Haussmann opens its doors of the panoramic terrace to welcome from July 5 to August 31 a program combining cinema at the end of the day music with a selection of leading artists and young labels from the French scene.

This free festival, open to registration on the department store's website, will not forget to succumb to the vogue for NFTs since an exhibition of crypto art curated by Obvious, a French collective of artists and researchers using algorithms as pioneers of artificial intelligence to create works of art and whose work was highlighted in 2018 with the sale of one of their paintings, the first of its kind, at Christie's New York, will be held from July 6 to 10.

This will also highlight a selection of French labels, emerging or iconic. Nodaleto, a French house of shoes made in Venice founded in 2019, Casablanca a contemporary fashion house dedicated to protecting and promoting a holistic approach to design and craftsmanship, D 'Estrëe Parisian brand created in 2016, the Martin Martin label which positions itself on responsible fashion, the Magali Pascal brand presented exclusively at the Creative Gallery on the 2nd floor of the department store while, produced on the occasion of this event French Touch, the Galeries Lafayette brand will unveil a limited edition short wardrobe produced entirely in Troyes, the historic cradle of the French textile industry.

More Details on Galeries Lafayette Celebrating the French Touch

Galeries Lafayette celebrates the French touch 

What: Manor supports Basel Museum Night, in collaboration with Novartis, Basel Cantonal Bank and Helvetia Insurance.

Why is it important: After two years, this popular public event can take place again: on May 20 from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., 37 museums and cultural institutions in Basel, the border region of Saint-Louis and Weil am Rhein will offer night owls a varied program.

Manor Basel's 'Night of the Museums' returns 

What: Falabella participated in their first "Seller Day," a meeting aimed at entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized companies seeking to expand their business and add a new platform to market their products.

Why is it important: The company shared with the startups and SMEs present the entire Falabella.com ecosystem so that they could learn about the growth tools in the marketplace, and learn about logistics and distribution, among other points.

The meeting displayed in its program, different conversation panels with experts in e-commerce and interactive stands, to mention a few initiatives.

Those attending "Seller Day" were able to access exclusive benefits from Falabella.com, highlighting a 50% discount on the commission for the first three months, among other bonuses.

Falabella celebrates "Seller Day" in Chile

What: CEO of Manor signed an agreement with Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga and 27 other leaders of companies and associations in the food sector to fight against food waste.

Why is it important: The objective is to halve avoidable food losses by 2030. The signatories undertake to put concrete measures to limit their waste and report annually on the progress made. This agreement is part of the action plan against food waste adopted by the Federal Council on April 6, 2022.

Manor's Confederation and food sector are committed against food waste

What: The Integrated Report covers the period January 1 to December 31, 2021 and discloses the company's performance and actions on how it affects the commercial, social and environmental context within the area in which it operates.

Why it is important: With this year's theme of 'Together, We Recover,' SM Investments has further communicated the value of sustainable business practices across its portfolio as it features stories on innovation and community support amid the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Through this report, we highlight the huge impact SM's businesses and our wide ecosystem had last year – in financial performance, vaccination rollout, economic recovery, disaster response and resilience and in addressing climate change," the company declares. As restrictions on mobility continue to ease, SM has also expressed optimism on the rebound of the country's economy and the gradual reopening of the Philippines under the 'new normal.'

SM Retail contributes 17% of the company income. Compared to 2020, SM Retail revenues grew 2% and the net income grew by 133% in 2021. In 2021, despite the challenging conditions of the pandemic, two department stores were opened in SM City Daet, Camarines Norte, and SM City Grand Central in Caloocan. The report also states that in 2021, the Call to Deliver service accounted for 10% of total non-grocery sales.

SM Investments launches second integrated report

SM Financial Supplement

What: When presenting its 2021 Sustainability Report, corporate general manager of Falabella stated that it was a year of great achievements that will remain marked in the history of Falabella Retail as a reflection of its leadership in the digital-physical world, with capacity for innovation and resilience.

Why is it important: The report evidences the fulfillment of the company's goals in Chile, Colombia and Peru. The high standards of customer satisfaction were achieved and various milestones were achieved regarding the optimization of the shopping experience. The foregoing was achieved by focusing on the company's sustainability pillars: Innovation in the business model, +Green, Local Development, and Agile Talent and Culture.

Falabella's 2021 Sustainability Report 

What: The Mall Group received the Community Forest Support Award for the year 2022.

Why is it important: The Mall Group as Thailand's first Green Retail Received the Community Forest Support Award for the year 2022 by the Royal Forest Department, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. On the occasion of National Community Forest Day, May 24, 2022.

The Mall Group received the Community Forest Support Award 

What: Fnac Switzerland opens its shop-in-shop at Manor Lausanne.

Why is it important: The opening today of the Fnac shop-in-shop at Manor in Lausanne marks the end of the deployment of this project which saw the creation of 27 Fnac shop-in-shops at Manor in Switzerland, including 13 in German-speaking Switzerland and Ticino.

The new Fnac shop-in-shops within Manor, operate as a concession with a surface area of up to 1,000 m². These new spaces offer a wide selection of products and services, with associated customer advice, in the fields of books, music, cinema, multimedia, video games, telephony, photography on the 3rd floor de Manor, as well as small appliances and accessories on the 6th floor.

Fnac opens a shop-in-shop at Manor Lausanne

What: El Corte Inglés joins as every year, to celebrate International Star Wars Day, and for this reason, it has organized various actions throughout this month both in its centers and through social networks.

Why is it important: El Corte Inglés is celebrating "May, Geek Month" to attract young consumers with 15% discount on all items from the "Geek Universe", products such as comics, action figures, board games, movies, and sagas of the most relevant favorite characters. Likewise, El Corte Inglés has organized various initiatives throughout the month of May that will delight the most popular George Lucas films. Consoles have been installed so that customers can try the new Star Wars Lego game and take photos in the photo booth installed in space.

In the toy area, offers of kidults toys have been highlighted throughout the month of May and geek board games can be purchased at the centres, on the web and on the app.

El Corte Inglés launches "May, Geek Month"

What: Breuninger has appointed David Zimmermann as the second managing director of the flagship store in Düsseldorf.

Why is it important: Zimmermann had already worked for four years from 2015 as head of the Men's Premium department in Düsseldorf. Before returning, he spent three years as Area Sales Manager at Oberpollinger in Munich.

Breuninger's new top management in Düsseldorf

What: El Corte Inglés' plan to transform two buildings it owns into a hotel establishment should be authorized this Wednesday by the Urban Development Commission of Madrid City Hall.

Why is it important: El Corte Inglés already owns several hotel assets through a joint venture with Grupo Matutes , which includes Only You Hotels, Aire Hotels that have recently been sold. It is, however, a real estate activity, which does not fall under Viajes El Corte Inglés, but a 50/50 joint venture between Grupo Corte Inglés and Grupo Matutes.

The new company resulting from the merger between Viajes El Corte Inglés and Logitravel plans to fully enter the hotel sector in 2022 through various modalities that will allow it to control the product and increase its profit margins, thus crossing a new step in its strategy to strengthen its vertical integration model.

El Corte Inglés to build a hotel in Madrid

What: The department store recorded an accumulated operating flow (EBITDA) of 952 million Mexican pesos (44.2 million euros). The sales grew to 8,956 million pesos (416.2 million euros). The company ended the first quarter of the year with an increase in its turnover of 49%, to 8,956 million Mexican pesos (416.2 million euros), compared to the same period of the previous year.

Why it is important: The growth is due to a greater demand, and to its strategy focused on the client leading to a 16% increase in revenue from its 'Palacio Contigo' program.

The Palacio de Hierro ended 2021 with a year-on-year growth in sales of 46.4%, to 37,215 million Mexican pesos (1,620 million euros). The company thus exceeded the level of sales prior to the pandemic, with an increase of 6.2% compared to 2019.

El Palacio de Hierro's Q1 results

What: SM Investments Corporation reported its consolidated net income grew 27% to PHP12.0 billion in the January to March period from PHP9.5 billion in the same period last year.

Why is it important: SM Retail reported first-quarter revenues of PHP74.5 billion, higher by 6% compared to PHP70.0 billion in the same period last year. Notably, overall retail revenues are 94% of pre-pandemic revenues, indicating pent-up demand, especially for non-food items since the fourth quarter of last year with the easing of alert levels. Specialty stores performed well with revenues up 11% and net income higher by 52%.

Recently, the shareholders of SM Investments approved the acquisition of Philippine Geothermal Production Company (PGPC) at the Annual Shareholders' Meeting. This is in line with SM's strong commitment to sustainability and in promoting renewable energy in the country.

The total assets of SM Investments stood at PHP1.4 trillion. Gearing ratio stood at 38% net debt to 62% total equity.

SM Investments Q1 net income grows 27%