Dubai: More than 50 retailers from across the region battled it out for top honours in the second edition of the RetailME awards.

Held at Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai, under the patronage of Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi, UAE Minister of Economy, winners were announced in 15 categories recognising malls, grocers, marketing excellence and impressive new-comers.

Azizia Panda, Daiso Value Store and THE One, who won the Middle East Retailer, International Retailer and Lifestyle Retailer respectively, walked away with the top honours at this year's awards, which were judged by a panel comprising well-established names in the industry before being independently collected, collated and audited by Ernst & Young.

Huge success Among the other categories, best new retail brand went to fashion store H&M, Spinneys picked up grocer of the year and the best mall award went to Mall of the Emirates.

"After the huge success of the inaugural edition of the awards last year, the expectations were sky high this year and we can proudly claim that it turned out to be an even bigger success," said Pierre Pereira, director of Concept Media, publishers of RetailME.

Thomas Lundgren, founder of THE One, added: "We are so honoured that we received two awards for the second year running, especially considering the fact that competition in the market, and therefore also for these awards, is growing stronger by the day."

Jury members included Saeed Al Naboudah, CEO of the Dubai Shopping Festival and Dubai Summer Surprises, and Colm McLoughlin, managing director of Dubai Duty Free.

Unprecedented pace "The Middle East's retail industry which is already growing at an unprecedented pace is poised for greater growth in the coming years" said Al Nabouda.

"The region will set a benchmark in retailing practices which the rest of the world will strive to achieve and awards such as these will go a long way in bringing out the best among Middle East retailers."