Dan Murphy’s has taken out top honours as the ‘Outstanding Retailer of the Year Award’ as part of the BRW and AMP Capital Shopping Centres 2012 Retailer of the Year awards.
Other finalists in the category included Geographic, Crust Gourmet Pizza Bars, Grill’d Healthy Burgers, Oroton Group, Salvos Stores and Telstra.
BRW editor Kate Mills said: “It was exciting to see the calibre of entries this year. It is a tough time in retailing yet our award recipients have flourished and found new and innovative ways of doing business.
“Innovation is the name of the game as a technological revolution enables new ways of reaching out to ever-more dollar conscious consumers.
“Dan Murphy’s achieved outstanding results and were the unanimous choice to take out the top gong. We’re thrilled to be able to recognise and celebrate the achievements of all our winners and finalists through these awards.”
Although Woolworths-owned, Dan Murphy’s general manager Martin Smith says it has always been run as a separate business and attributes its success to the culture the founder built. “Murphy, by himself, fostered a focus on wine and wine education with a lowest price guarantee,” Smith said.
“That combination of a great product range with staff who know their stuff and a determination to make it available to the general public not just the affluent is something we’ve worked to maintain as we’ve expanded.”
Dual winner Sneaking Duck also rates a special mention with judges – taking out two of the seven retail awards. The online prescription glass retailer only entered the ‘new retailer’ award category but blew the judges away, leading them to give Sneaking Duck the award for ‘innovation’ as well. In the innovation category Sneaking Duck was up against some big name competitors including Gloria Jean’s Coffees and Sportsgirl.
The other categories and winners are:
NEW RETAILER OF THE YEAR – Sneaking Duck
MULTI-CHANNEL RETAILER OF THE YEAR – The Body Shop Australia
SUSTAINABLE RETAILING – Woolworths
INNOVATION IN RETAIL – Sneaking Duck
SUCCESSFUL RETAIL MARKETING CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR – Bankwest
BEST CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE OF THE YEAR – Aussie Farmers Direct