SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) of the Sy family remains the lone Philippine company in the list of top 250 retailers.
SMIC has also been named one of the 50 fastest-growing retailers around the world.
Global Powers of Retailing 2020, a new report from Deloitte Global, showed SMIC moved up two notches from its previous ranking of 169, to land on the 167th spot this year based on its retail revenue of $6.4 billion.
The report also looked at the 50 companies in the global top 250 retailers with the highest compound annual growth rates in revenue for the period up to fiscal year 2018.
Dubbed the Fastest 50, this subgroup includes four Southeast Asian players — two from Indonesia, and one each from the Philippines and Thailand. All four players belong to the Convenience/Forecourt Store and Hypermarket/Supercenter/Superstore categories.
Within this subgroup, SMIC landed on the 45th spot, down from its 43rd place in the previous year. But SMIC, along with French retailers Kering and LVMH, recorded the best bottom-line performance among the Fastest 50.
The top 250 global retailers generated aggregated revenues of $4.74 trillion in fiscal year 2018, representing a composite growth of 4.1 percent, according to the report.
The results were released locally by Deloitte Philippines, a member of the Deloitte Asia Pacific network.
The minimum revenue for a company to enter the top 250 rankings is $3.9 billion, up from $3.7 billion in the previous year, with an average company size of $19 billion.
Deloitte’s outlook for the industry is uncertain as overall economic growth will likely be subdued, said Eric Landicho, Deloitte Philippines managing partner and chief executive officer.
“No doubt our young population is a plus for the retail sector, particularly for those retailers that are focused on rolling out more innovative products,” said Landicho. “This demographic will also be key in growing the e-commerce market because they are the more tech-savvy consumers with ready access to mobile devices.”
Convenience store chains and supermarkets are increasingly gaining traction across Southeast Asia as they entice consumers with greater variety and availability of products and better service.
In the Philippines, where food remains the major retail good, these stores are also positioning themselves as players in the digital payments sector, offering in-store payments for a growing list of services and products.
“We see ample room for growth for these convenience stores, especially as the country continues to urbanize and incomes continue to rise,” Landicho said.
“As in other emerging markets in the region, these stores — in partnership with mobile payments service providers — can play a key role in enabling the millions of unbanked Filipinos to avail of financial services through digital payment methods. It is even likely this method will edge out conventional card payments as the preferred mode of payment,” he added.
