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: Breuninger is expanding the range of services in all department stores, with the Personal Shopping 2.0 appointment service.

Why it is important: After a successful pilot phase, the appointment service Personal Shopping 2.0 is now expanding Breuninger's stationery range in all department stores.

Breuninger offers individual advice in a relaxed atmosphere. On the desired date, customers can have specially trained consultants create their individual outfits free of charge.

The offer is not tied to a fixed minimum turnover and can be used equally by all interested parties. Whether you are looking for new running shoes, a different look, or an outfit for a special occasion.

Breuninger adds appointment service for a personal shopping experience

What: June 1 marked a big day for Shanghai residents, after a two-month COVID lockdown SKP and other shopping destinations finally resume business.

Why is it important: Shopping malls in Beijing and Shanghai have gradually reopened as pandemic control measures lifted in both cities. Among those are Beijing's SKP Mall and World Trade Center. Luxury stores in these top shopping destinations, including Louis Vuitton, Hermès, and Chanel, have seen long queues outside.

In the digital arena, e-commerce has also been steadily recovering as logistics improve in Shanghai, where many luxury houses' warehouses are based. Brands like Prada, Bottega Veneta, and Lanvin recorded positive sales performance on May 31, when Tmall Luxury Pavillion kicked off its 618 shopping carnival.

SKP opens as Shanghai ends citywide lockdown 

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: DSquared2 lands in Paris with its ecological project "one life one planet".

Why is it important: A capsule collection with low environmental impact has just been launched on the market. It will notably be highlighted in a series of pop-up stores around the world. Starting with Paris.

The brand is set up at the entrance to the Galeries Lafayette Champs-Elysées with a space of around 40 square meters, covered with a fake lawn, a skate track, and a long green tunnel.

There is a selection of accessories and basic pieces for men and women, including t-shirts and sweatshirts in certified organic cotton, jersey joggers made from a mix of organic and recycled fibers, bomber jackets in recycled nylon, or organic cotton denim made with an innovative "elasticized" yarn with 50% recycled and biodegradable content.


Galeries Lafyette Champs-Elysées, Dsquared2's green pop-up

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: 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: 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: 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%

What: During the first quarter of 2022, total revenues increased by 18%, while Ebitda and profits fell comparing to Q1 2021.

Why it is important: Falabella generated profits of 92 million dollars between January 1 and March 31. This figure is 47% lower than in the same period last year.

The Ebitda reached 371 million, which represents for the Chilean giant a slowdown of 17% compared to the same period of 2021. The fall is mainly explained by an increase in administrative and sales expenses.

The company's consolidated revenue rose 18% reaching 3719 million dollars, thanks to the home improvement, banking business and department store branches. Falabella sales reached about 4000 million dollars and a growth of 15.8%, compared to the first quarter of 2021.

Falabella's Q1 results

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: 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: 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 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: 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: 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: 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: After Galeries Lafayette's decision to switch 11 of its provincial units to affiliation, the Société des grands Magasins (SGM) officially became the owner of seven of these addresses.

Why is it important: SGM now operates the points of sale in Angers, Dijon, Grenoble, Le Mans, Limoges, Orléans and Reims, which it continues to run under the Galeries Lafayette brand as part of a partnership.

Launched in 2018 by the Merlin family as a specialist in city center commercial real estate, SGM has acquired a total of around 80,000 square meters of retail space to be revitalized.

Renovation work will be carried out on each site in the coming months, while the assortment will evolve: SGM wants to develop a complementary offer in the catering, leisure, culture, or the world of children. Fashion will therefore be less central in these points of sale.

The installation of pop-up stores and ephemeral offers will also be multiplied, while new third-party brands will be set up on the walls.

To increase the traffic of these stores, the property intends to host events, by opening the associative and cultural environment, offering services, leisure, and meeting spaces. But also, by developing alternative offers such as second hand.

SGM takes over seven Galeries Lafayette stores (French)

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: The Mall Group, in collaboration with the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI), PPP Plastics, and the Alliance to End Plastics Waste (AEPW), organize a competition to create a business from waste Business Model to encourage new generations to continue to use plastics.

Why is it important: To support the BCG economic development approach, circular economy and green economy (Bio-Circular-Green Economy), which is an economic model for sustainable development. This activity is under the ALL-Thailand Sustainable Plastic Management Project which wants to create a Business Model in waste management and can be used to expand broadly It is beneficial to the society, environment, and economy of Thailand.

The Mall Group builds a business from waste business model

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:  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: 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