Myer Melbourne has been recognised as the world’s best new department store.
During this week’s 2011 Oracle World Retail Awards, Myer Melbourne was awarded the Store Design of the Year Award, a prestigious honour, highly contested by retailers from around the world. Previous winners have included Topshop New York, Niketown London and American Girl Place, Los Angeles.
Myer CEO Bernie Brookes said from Berlin it was the first time an Australian retailer has won a World Retail award in the five years of the awards program.
“It is an incredible honour to have our flagship Myer Melbourne recognised as the Best in Retail Store Design. Four years ago our vision was to bring to Australia and Melbourne a world-class department store. We felt we had delivered that for our customers, to now be recognised on an international stage is just tremendous,” said Brookes.
“It is a great reward for the team at Myer that worked so hard to rebuild and relaunch the ‘Old Dame’ that was the iconic Myer Melbourne store. The developer, CFS (Colonial First State Asset Management), the builder, Probuild and the Architects, The Buchan Group and NH Architecture, in conjunction with the dedicated Myer team lead by Megan Foster, have transformed Myer Melbourne into the best in the world”, said Brookes.
The Finalists for the 2011 award included Carrefour Planet, Vénissieux/Alcobendas/Mont St Jean; Desigual, Barcelona; Disney Store, New York; eSpoir, Seoul (JHP) and Tsvetnoy, Moscow (HMKM).
The brief for the $300 million Myer Melbourne rebuild was to update a century old retail store – consolidating two stores across two city blocks into a single, modern store. Inspired by premier department stores around the world, the store has nine light filled floors, a central atrium void and showcases many of the world’s most desirable brands.
Myer group GM marketing and brand development, Megan Foster, who was the Melbourne project director, said maintaining the rich heritage of Myer Melbourne was the cornerstone of the development.
“The heritage listed façade containing the famous Myer Bourke St Windows along with the iconic Mural Hall, Melbourne’s premier ballroom housing the celebrated Napier Wallace Murals, were brought back to life as part of the rebuild,” Foster said.
“Every floor was designed with the customer in mind making sure we created a wonderful experience as they navigate through the store. Our flagship now delivers fashion, beauty, entertainment and lifestyle across nine state-of-the art levels with a breathtaking atrium and centrepiece escalator,” she said.
“There is lots of natural light, outstanding product display, great amenities and space for the customer to pause and soak up the atmosphere,” Foster said.
Designed with a focus on abundant natural light and spacious aisles, the store invites customers to journey through each of the merchandise floors. Two lift banks and central escalators traffic the 26 million visitors each year. Customer ambient seating and superior restroom facilities ensure visitors are well catered for and feel comfortable to spend time engaging with the store and the merchandise offering.
The Oracle World Retail Awards is a global platform that recognises and promotes retail excellence. Retailers from all countries of the world compete to win these highly coveted awards, covering the key areas of retail skills and operations. The awards offer retail organisations from the around the world the opportunity to showcase innovation and creativity within their business to the wider world.
Inside Retail head of content Robert Stockdill was one of the members of a global judging panel who selected finalists from a huge array of entries over a variety of categories before a Grand Jury made the final decision.
