DISTREE Middle East has announced the full list of nominated companies for the ‘Middle East Retail Academy (MERA): 2014 Awards’, which are taking place in conjunction with this year’s regional technology and electronics retail channel event.
Farouk Hemraj, CEO at DISTREE Events, commented: “We congratulate all the nominated companies for this year’s MERA Awards. This year’s selection process involved a combination of continuous Middle East channel feedback from the last 12 months, independent market data and input from a DISTREE Events selection committee.”
“It is important to point out that these awards are not intended to reward the largest companies by volume, they are designed to recognise companies that have demonstrated continued retail channel excellence throughout the last 12 months,” Hemraj added.
The overall winner in each category will be determined through a live electronic vote at the ‘MERA: 2014 Awards’ Gala Dinner taking place on May 21st at the Fairmont Bab Al Bahr in Abu Dhabi in conjunction with DISTREE Middle East 2014.
Retailers will vote to select the winners in vendor and distributor categories, while vendors will vote to select retailer winners. The full list of nominated companies (displayed in alphabetical order) for each category is as follows:
- PC Vendor of the Year – Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba
- Tablet Vendor of the Year – Asus, Eurostar, Huawei, Lenovo, Prestigio, Touchmate
- PC Accessories Vendor of the Year – Belkin, Genius, Logitech, Microsoft, Targus
- Tablet & Phone Accessories Vendor of the Year – Belkin, Cellularline, Casemate, Promate, Targus
- Imaging Vendor of the Year– Canon, Fujifilm, GoPro, Nikon, Sony
- Storage Vendor of the Year – Sandisk, Seagate, Toshiba, Transcend, WD
- Smartphone Vendor of the Year – Blackberry, HTC, Huawei, Nokia, Sony
- Home Networking Vendor of the Year – Belkin, D-Link, Edimax, Linksys, TP-Link
- Software Vendor of the Year – Bitdefender, Eset, Kaspersky, Microsoft, Norton
- Audio Accessories Vendor of the Year – Beats, Bose, Logitech, Sennheiser, TDK
- Wearable Tech & Connected Devices Vendor of the Year – Fitbit, GoPro, Jawbone, Pebble, Xtouch
- Overall UAE Retailer of the Year – Carrefour, Emax, Jumbo, Lulu, Sharaf DG
- Specialist UAE Retailer of the Year – Emax, Jacky’s, Jumbo, Plug-Ins, Sharaf DG
- Saudi Arabia Retailer of the Year – Carrefour, Emax, Extra, Lulu, Panda, Virgin
- Bahrain Retailer of the Year – Carrefour, Geant, Lulu, Sharaf DG, Virgin
- Kuwait Retailer of the Year – Alghanim (X-cite), Best United, Carrefour, Eureka, Lulu
- Oman Retailer of the Year – ABT, Carrefour, Emax, Lulu, Sharaf DG
- Qatar Retailer of the Year – Carrefour, Lulu, PC One, Qatar Duty Free, Sharaf DG
- Egypt & Levant Retailer of the Year – Carrefour, CompuMe, Khoury Home, Radioshack, Smartbuy
- Middle East E-tailer of the Year – Alshop, Crazydeals, JadoPado, Jumia, Souq, LetsTango
- Middle East Volume Distributor of the Year – FDC, Redington, Jumbo, Metra, BDL
- Middle East Retail distributor of the Year – ITE, Redington Lifestyle, Grand Stores, Trigon, GCT,
- Middle East Accessories Distributor of the Year – Max Electronics, Jurassic, Lionfish, Gadgitech, Shift
“The DISTREE Events selection committee has focused this year’s nominations on companies that continue to drive the development of a strong Middle East retail channel community through their involvement in both MERA’s monthly report service and ongoing support for DISTREE Middle East,” Hemraj explained. “Companies that have not met the required standard have been excluded from the list of official nominations.”
