World Retail Awards announces winners

The 2012 World Retail Awards ceremony took place on Thursday

night at London's Royal Courts Justice. In attendance were over 600 retail industry executives, including M&S CEO Marc Bolland, John Lewis' Chairman Charlie Mayfield, and Gary Hogarth, CEO of Agent Provocateur to name but a few.

There to present the awards was journalist Kate Silverton. The judges included Ian Chesire, CEO of Kingfisher, Retail Retail CEO Bijou Kurien, HSN CEO Mindy Grossman, Andrew Jennings, CEO of Karstadt, and Renuka Jagtiani, CEO of Landmark Retail.

Among the big winners of the evening was Charlie Mayfield, Chairman of John Lewis, who was presented with the award for 'Outstanding Leadership'. John Lewis won the award for their 'Retail Advertising Campaign of the Year', while the 'Retailer of the Year' award went to Costco. Ikea, meanwhile, won 'International Retailer of the Year'. The 'Pure Play eTailer of the Year' award went to Asos, and Macy's was presented with the 'Multi-channel Retailer of the Year' award.

Fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, former CEO of M&S Sir Stuart Rose, Chairman and CEO of Coach Lew Frankfort, and Dickson Poon, Chairman of Dickson Concepts which owns Harvey Nichols, were awarded membership of the World Retail Hall of Fame. "Great retail businesses and brands are very often launched and built by outstanding individuals and it is for that reason that we believe the World Retail Hall of Fame is a vitally important part of the World Retail Congress," said Congress Chairman Ian McGarrigle.