X-Factor stars Reggie ‘n’ Bollie entertained over 200 retailers at a glittering award ceremony last night, which recognised the shining stars of Manchester’s Arndale.
Retailers arrived dressed to impress to find out who would carry home the coveted awards at the third Manchester Arndale Retailer Awards held at The Lowry hotel.
Crowned winners were delighted in the main fashion categories; Select ‘Womenswear’, Size? ‘Mixed Fashion’, Schuh ‘Footwear’ and Scotts ‘Menswear’.
Flagship store Next took home the ‘Large Store Award’ for the second year running, whilst Chisholm Hunter sparkled as best ‘Jewellery store’ and Lush, the largest single story store in the world completed with a Green House, bagged ‘Health & Beauty Store’. Fossil won best ‘Gifts and Accessories Store’ for its beautiful watches, jewellery and bags.
With a new store location, Build-a-Bear Workshop ran away with the best ‘Children’s Store’, EE in Market Street tapped into the ‘Technology & Media Store’ award, In-Time store took home the award for best ‘Financial & Services Store’ and Game Workshop collected the ‘Specialist Store’ award.
Representing the foodie outlets in Manchester Arndale, independent store Rollers was awarded best ‘Café, Bar & Restaurant’ and Taco Bell in the Foodcourt triumphed with the ‘Fast Food & Food to Go’ award.
Prior to the awards decisions, each store in the centre received mystery shop visits and thousands of votes have been recorded by Manchester Arndale over the past few months, with customers eager to celebrate their favourite store, staff and restaurants in the centre. The stylish ceremony at The Lowry hotel was jam-packed with guests on Sunday as the winners of the 18 categories took to the stage.
A special set of awards for ‘The Shop I Can’t Live Without’ went to Bobo Tea (independent) and ALDI (multiple). One personal recognition award went to Kevin Lawlor from Starbucks who won the coveted ‘Service with a Smile Award’ which was awarded on customer votes and comments alone. For 2016 Topshop/Topman received the Manchester Arndale Excellence Award, awarded to the retailer who received the most customer votes overall.
David Allinson, Centre Director at Manchester Arndale, said: “Our retailer awards serve to celebrate just how valued retailers and their store teams are to customers and the Manchester Arndale team.
“The event this year was a fantastic evening for all the MARA winners but also to all the finalists, as the voting and mystery shopper scoring was extremely close across all categories this year, which is testament to the high quality of retailers in the centre. The celebrity entertainment added some seriously good fun to the proceedings, and the night proved Manchester Arndale most definitely has the X-Factor too! Everyone looked amazing and thoroughly enjoyed the event – we’re all already looking forward to next year’s awards.”
