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Tag: sunway malls

  • Sunway Malls retailers granted flexible operating hours post MCO

    Sunway Malls retailers granted flexible operating hours post MCO

    Malaysian mall operator Sunway Malls is testing a new policy to allow non-essential retailers to implement flexible operating hours following the advent of government movement control orders.

    If the one-month test proves to be effective, Sunway will extend the policy for another two months.

    The move will see participating retailers trading eight hours daily rather than the current 12, yielding a cumulative 30-day saving of 120 trading hours and allowing improved optimization of staffing arrangement from two working shifts to one.

    Market estimates show that 35 percent of tenant retailer costs arise from wages, while rent constitutes 15 percent. Savings from the move are anticipated to be equivalent to a half-month’s worth of rental costs.

    “We foresee after the resumption of business post MCO, there will be a gestation period before full recovery takes place,” said Sunway Malls and Theme Parks CEO HC Chan. “We understand too that the new normal of social distancing and absence of mass gathering will have the greatest impact for the first three months post-MCO. Taking cognizance of this, we have to accord some degree of business flexibility to our business partners.”

    Sunway Malls will continue to operate as usual from 10 am–10 pm daily.

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  • Malaysia’s Sunway Malls delays coronavirus response

    Malaysia’s Sunway Malls delays coronavirus response

    Malaysian shopping-center operator Sunway Malls is taking an extended period to consider its position on rental rebates to its retail tenants amidst the coronavirus outbreak.

    The firm says it will follow the guidance of the Malaysia Shopping Malls Association, which has recommended a longer period of observation to fairly assess the situation.

    Sunway Malls said while retailers in Hong Kong and Singapore are seeking rental relief, their current predicament is different to that of Malaysian retailers since the rents in Hong Kong and Singapore are five-to-10-times higher than in Malaysia.

    The company also said its seven malls are largely driven by local consumption (more than 90 percent) rather than by tourist spending, so there has been less impact from fewer tourists visiting the country during the virus crisis.

    “There is no significant decrease in footfall when comparing last year’s post-festive season footfall with this year’s,” said the statement. “Sunway Malls’ statistics show that the virus outbreak had caused a slight decrease in footfall during the initial weeks, but it has since normalized and our footfall has remained stable and resilient.”

    Sunway Malls acknowledged the uneasiness caused by the virus, although described the situation as cautious rather than regressive.

    “By far, the situation in Malaysia is largely controlled, contained and relatively low in relation to other affected countries,” it said.

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  • Malaysian mall introduces metal straws for shoppers

    Malaysian mall introduces metal straws for shoppers

    Malaysia’s Sunway Malls is introducing metal straws in a move to help eliminate single-use plastic straws from its property. The decision, made in alignment with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the government’s decision to ban plastic straws in the Federal Territories in Malaysia, has introduced metal straws. Many of Sunway’s tenants are moving forward with alternative straw materials too – biodegradable paper straws are available at some outlets, while others have decided to remove plastic straws altogether and some are also rewarding customers who bring their own straws.

    Sunway shoppers who spend RM100 (US$24) in two receipts will be eligible to collect their personal metal straws from the concierge counters of each participating mall.

    “At Sunway Malls, we are excited to introduce metal straws, which will be available to shoppers with a very minimal spend,” said Sunway Malls COO Kevin Tan. “We were one of the first malls to introduce the Bring Your Own Bag (BYOB) campaign in 2017. With metal straws, we hope to instill a greater sense of responsibility and sustainability towards the environment through a conscious effort of reducing daily plastic consumption in our shoppers lives,” he said.

    “As a landmark mall in our community, this is part of our continuous effort for the betterment of the future and hope that our shoppers will also see the value in this campaign. A little change goes a long way.”

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  • Sunway Malls wins best in Asia award

    Sunway Malls wins best in Asia award

    Sunway Malls has been recognised as one of Malaysia’s best companies to work for in Asia. HR Asia, Asia’s most authoritative publication for senior HR professionals – created the HR Asia Best Companies to Work for in Asia platform, where best practices and inner workings of companies are investigated to understand what distinguishes them from the rest. The Awards covered 12 markets across the region, and culminated with an award ceremony recently to celebrate the winners.

    Sunway Malls’ vision is “to create experiences that enrich lives” and this vision is extended to our external stakeholders and our employees. Sunway has 4 core values as the guiding factors to our vision; Integrity, Humility, Excellence and Togetherness. Through constant innovation and brain storms, the company take into account the employees’ needs and aim to provide to our best of ability.

    Their first mall, Sunway Pyramid is 21 this year. Sunway Carnival, opened in 2007, is undergoing expansion, Sunway Giza is our friendly community mall opened in 2009 whilst their newer malls are Sunway Putra Mall and Sunway Velocity Mall. To date, Sunway has amassed 54 renowned international and national awards.

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  • Sunway Malls continues to be thronged with shoppers amidst new malls in the Klang Valley

    Sunway Malls continues to be thronged with shoppers amidst new malls in the Klang Valley

    Sunway Pyramid, Malaysia’s most iconic themed shopping destination, has recorded its highest traffic growth in 2017. The mall’s car count saw a positive 5% growth as compared to the year before amidst cautious consumer sentiment, disruption in ecommerce and the opening of more new malls in Klang Valley.

    Kevin Tan, the Chief Operating Officer of Sunway Malls, attributed this positive increase in traffic to multiple reasons.

    “Our Chairman, Tan Sri Dr. Jeffrey Cheah’s foresight to take pro-active steps to ease vehicular traffic congestions within Sunway City and Subang Jaya successfully facilitated better driving experience to Sunway City, said Kevin.
    “Tens of millions were spent to construct a new flyover, which flows traffic from KESAS into Sunway City with ease. More millions were then spent to widen the NPE roads leading to the Kewajipan roundabout, thus reducing congestion and freeing up the NPE road in front of the mall,” he continued.

    The flyover and road expansion were funded by Sunway as part of its community service to visitors of Sunway City. Sunway also contributed substantially to the Bus Rapid Transit, providing the community a cleaner alternative public transportation within Sunway City.

    There is also a plan in the pipeline to ease the congestion due to weaving traffic in front of the gateway entrance to the mall.

    Another co-relating factor is the increased parking capacity with the addition of the mall’s new wing, Sunway Pyramid West, where Sunway Clio Hotel is situated. Currently, the mall has approximately 10,000 parking bays integrated with Sunway Resort Hotel and Spa, Sunway Pinnacle and other Sunway business units nearby.

    “In addition to the 5% traffic growth, we see ride hailing as another key driver that positively contributed to the increase in footfall of the mall. The popularity of ride hailing services such as Grab and Uber is a plus factor providing alternative transportation to the mall without taking up our car park bays. It is estimated that
    these ride service arrivals is as high as 20% of the mall’s average car arrival”, said Kevin, who believes that ride hailing helps lessen the demand of car park bays during peak hours, which in return allow higher turnover of bays with lesser congestion and increasing the mall’s capacity to receive more cars.

    The mall also had a proliferation of non-shopping offerings expanding relative to shopping offerings with the growing trend on F&B and leisure spending.

    “The demand for F&B over the last few years had been so significant that 25%-30% of the today’s malls’ leaseable area is now catered to this trade category. Years ago, F&B took up less than 10% of the malls’ overall leased space. If you combine both the F&B and leisure trade categories today, it can go beyond 50% of the nett lettable area
    in a mall and these are significant traffic contributors,” Kevin explained.

    The growth in traffic complements the mall’s plan to upgrade its parking ambience this year. The mall is uplifting its car park by applying epoxy flooring, starting with the Preferred Parking zone, and allocating charging stations for Mercedes electric vehicles.

    “We are further improvising the driving experience in our car park. A fresh coat of paint and flooring coated with epoxy is currently in progress, starting with our CP2 Preferred Parking. In view of the popularity of the Preferred Parking, we are allocating another zone for shoppers seeking convenience at B1,” said Jason Chin, General Manager of Operations for Sunway Malls, who also said that there is regular security patrol by the mall’s auxiliary police as safety has always been the mall’s top priority.

    “We are striving to create various new experiences to remain relevant to our shoppers. Those who visited the mall recently would be pleasantly surprised by sounds of the nature, especially birds chirping at our car park lobbies. We also decorated the lobby area so it creates a more wholesome ambience that depicts nature,” he
    continued.

    As for the tenants’ sales, the mall so far saw a positive growth for most of the brands. “With increased footfall, tenants have the opportunity to benefit with better sales performance. Our tenants are reporting robust growth in 2017. We cannot deny the challenging times for retailers as shoppers are spoilt for choice today. Those who
    offer value marketing, social retailing and strong brand loyalty appeal to shoppers to spend at their particular store,” said Kevin.

    2017 was a key milestone for Sunway Pyramid as the mall celebrated its 20th anniversary and was accorded The Edge Malaysia Property Development Excellence Award.

  • Sunway Malls wins Gold Awards for Best Experiential Marketing Awards Malaysia

    Sunway Malls wins Gold Awards for Best Experiential Marketing Awards Malaysia

    Sunway Malls picked up two Gold Awards in front of 700 malls professionals, retailers and affiliated industries players at the inaugural Malaysia Shopping Malls Association’s (PPK) Best Experiential Marketing Awards 2016.

    Sunway Malls emerged as winners in two out of the three categories that saw 37 entries from 21 malls. The group beat competition from Mid Valley Megamall, Pavilion KL, Gurney Plaza and Gurney Paragon to clinch top spots.

    Sunway Pyramid picked up gold in Category C (malls above 1 million sq ft nett lettable area) for its marketing campaign “Captain America: Civil War” while Sunway Putra Mall’s “Kung Fu Panda Pawsome March” top Category B (malls with 500,001 to 999,999 sq ft nett lettable area).

    Both malls had teamed up with Disney’s Marvel and 20th Century Fox respectively to create various themed attractions that included out-of-mall activation, character appearances, life-size characters display, movie set inspired decorations and interactive sessions in their experiential marketing campaigns.

    “As malls become increasingly a focal place for the public, it’s imperative that they resonate and connect with shoppers at emotive and experiential levels,” said H.C Chan, CEO of Sunway Malls and Theme Parks.

    Malaysia mall industry is already facing intense competition as additional 27.28 mil sq ft retail space is being built to the existing 148.85 mil sq ft, bringing up the total retail space of 178.13 mil sq ft. in the country, according to National Property Information Center (NAPIC) data. This has resulted malls to adopt experiential marketing to stay competitive.

    For Sunway Pyramid, the campaign saw a 9.7% increase in traffic with 1.2 million shoppers interaction over the 24-day campaign period. Social engagement metrics scored 27.6 million reach with RM250,000 worth of publicity generated.

    Sunway Putra Mall’s footfall reached 800,000 during the campaign with RM200,000 worth of publicity generated while social media reach stood at 2 million.

    COO Kevin Tan said the Gold awards are a testament of the team’s hard work in the last few years. “The awards give us confidence that we are on the right path and doing the right things and we will forge forward with more confidence,” he added.

    The panel of judges included professionals from Branding Association from Malaysia, Tourism Malaysia, Focus Malaysia, Malaysia Institute of Architects and Lion & Lion.

    Judge Meredith Wallace, the Social Media Head of Lion & Lion commented “The entries were creative, inspired and showed a true understanding of today’s modern shoppers.”

    Malaysian malls over the years had gained recognition for their grand decorations and creative marketing campaigns that enhance shoppers’ shopping experience. PPK Malaysia’s inaugural AWARDS 2016 for BEST EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING were to honour these efforts for the best marketing programmes held in the past year.

    Qualified entries based on the malls’ marketing programmes held from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 comprising experiential festival celebrations, themed events, sales promotions, public relations, advertising, new and social media, community etc. Judging were based on objectives and strategies, creativity, action plan, results, budget and cost effectiveness.

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  • Sunway Malls recruiting flight attendants

    Sunway Malls recruiting flight attendants

    In a bid to soar above the growing competition in the Malaysian mall industry, Sunway Malls is hiring former flight attendants to work in customer service.

    As well as experience in delivering quality service, the former flight attendants have training and experience in safety and handling emergencies.

    Customer care - Sunway Pyramid 3

    So far nine former flight attendants have been recruited from a local carrier to work in both Sunway Pyramid and the soon-to-be-opened Sunway Velocity Mall. Similar recruits are also being sought for Sunway Putra Mall in Kuala Lumpur and Sunway Carnival Mall in Penang.

    “With increasing competition, it is imperative the creation of good customer-service experience in malls takes precedence as both a strategic differentiator and a loyalty tool in a saturated market,” says Sunway Malls COO Kevin Tan.

    customer-care-sunway-pyramid

    Earlier customer-service initiatives have included a carpark guiding system, powered wheelchairs and child distance monitors. Sunway Pyramid received a My Branded Service Award for outstanding customer service in 2009.

    Customer care - Sunway Pyramid 2

    Tan says the company still welcomes others who have not been flight attendants, with the most important criteria being passion and willingness to serve customers.

    Competition is expected to intensify in Malaysia’s mall industry as another 27.28 million sqft (2.5 million sqm) of new retail space is about to enter the market, according to data from the National Property Information Centre.

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  • Sunway Malls Adopt New Strategy in Elevating Customer Service

    Sunway Malls Adopt New Strategy in Elevating Customer Service

    Malaysia’s mall industry, already faced with stiff competition is expected to intensify as another 27.28 mil sq ft of new retail space will be entering the market according to National Property Information Centre (Napic) data.

    Of the 27.28 mil sq ft supply, 16.2 mil sq ft is at various stages of construction while the remaining 11.08 mil sq ft is are being planned. This will add on to the 148.85 mil sq ft of existing retail space in the market and brings Malaysia’s total retail space supply to 178.13 mil sq ft.  

    The increase in retail space comes at a time when retailers are already hard pressed with slower retail sale growth and lower margin amid weak consumer sentiments.

    In the latest quarter results by Retail Group Malaysia (RGM), Q2 2016 registered a growth rate of 7.5% against the forecast of 9.9% – 24% lower than expected. RGM termed the results as ‘below market expectation’. In contrast, retail sales fell 4.4% in Q1 2016.

    In a bid to increase, sustain and retain footfall and sales, Sunway Malls re-strategise their human capital enhancement by recruiting ex-flight attendants into the customer service division to better serve its shoppers.

    While known for delivering quality service, the hiring of ex-flight attendants also allows Sunway Malls to leverage on the crew’s training and experience in safety and emergency handling which serves as an added advantage for group’s front-line service.

    The initiative has so far seen the recruitment of nine ex-flight attendants from a local carrier in both Sunway Pyramid and soon- to-be-opened Sunway Velocity Mall. Recruitment effort is also underway to place more ex-attendants in Sunway Putra Mall in Kuala Lumpur and Sunway Carnival Mall in Penang.

    “With increasing competition, it is imperative that the creation of good customer service experience in malls takes precedence as both a strategic differentiator and a loyalty tool in a saturated market,” says Kevin Tan, Chief Operating Officer of Sunway Malls.

    “From the moment a customer steps into the mall, we strive to provide world class service through our touching hearts philosophy to create a warm, welcoming and wholesome lifestyle experience. We value the different needs of each and every customer in spite of background, gender and age hence we are creating diversity in the Concierge so they can engage with the various shopper profiles we have and extend assistance every time it’s necessary,” he continues.

    The group’s effort in delivering good customer service was also acknowledged by Professor Philip Kotler, the Father of Modern Marketing when he awarded Sunway Pyarmid with My Branded Service Award in recognition of its outstanding customer service back in 2009.

    Its earlier customer service initiatives among others included carpark guiding system, powered wheelchairs, child distance monitors and auxiliary police force were known as the mall industry’s firsts.

    Although Sunway Malls is hiring ex-flight attendants as part of their new retail strategy, the brand still welcomes all who have interest in the service line.

    “Some of our best customer service employees are not from the airline industry but they have the passion and the willingness in serving customers and that’s the most important criteria of all,” says Kevin.

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  • Sunway Malls to Activate Pokémon Go Lure Modules

    Sunway Malls to Activate Pokémon Go Lure Modules

    Starting tomorrow, Sunway Malls will be activating Pokémon Go lure modules at certain hours and at certain Poké stops for Pokémon Go fans. The participating malls from the Klang Valley are Sunway Pyramid, Sunway Putra Mall and Sunway Giza Mall. Sunway Carnival Mall in Penang will participate in the campaign as well.  

    The campaign will last for 2 weeks, and might extend if the response is good.

    “Since Pokémon Go was released on Saturday, some of our malls have seen some form of increase in footfall. Sunway Pyramid for example, have had an increase of 5% of shoppers as compared to the weekend before, Sunway Putra Mall has seen an increase of 12% whilst Sunway Giza Mall has seen an increase as well,” says Kevin Tan, Chief Operating Officer of Sunway Malls.

    All Sunway Malls will activate their lure modules campaign, with Sunway Pyramid taking the lead today itself. The lure hours and location will be shared with the public in the mall itself and in their social media sites.

    Sunway Pyramid will also run a Best Costume contest this coming Saturday, 8pm where the best dressed Pokémon Go costume can win surprise gifts from the mall. Retailers of the malls are spotted sporting their own rewards for Pokémon Go players.

    Ever since the introduction of GST (Goods & Service Tax) April last year, Malaysians were subsequently hit by the removal of petrol subsidy, sugar, inflation and drop in currency value. The retail and mall industry has been hit with lower consumer confidence, lower consumer spend and certainly lower footfall for certain malls. Hence, various malls in Malaysia are stepping up their game in attracting shoppers’ footfall.

    It is widely known that malls in general have high traffic during the festive period and school holidays, but the introduction of Pokémon Go has certainly spiked up the footfall for the non-peak season.

    While it’s still too early to determine if sales have increased for Sunway Malls following the higher footfall, the malls under the brand are amongst the first in Malaysia to jump into the trend.

    Sunway Pyramid’s Facebook fanpage was the first Malaysian mall facebook page to feature the various Pokémon shoppers and gamers can find in the mall and attracted high organic reach without advertisement spend. Sunway Carnival Mall followed suit with similar posts while Sunway Putra Mall and Sunway Giza featured guides in their fanpage.

    “As Pokémon Go is taking the world by storm, we hope Pokémon Go gamers take necessary safety precaution and be constantly aware of their surroundings. We wish no untoward accidents befall on them,” Kevin cautions.

    “We can’t control where the Pokémon would appear and if they would appear near railings, escalators, steps or at open air car park such as the roof top, we hope they would remain aware of their surroundings,” he said.

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