By Martin Vedris

SYDNEY: At the annual Electrical Retailing Awards in conjunction with the GfK Awards, Samsung won its second consecutive GfK Adding Value award, recognising how much value the company has contributed to the Australian industry. Here’s a wrap up of all the GfK award winners.

There were some surprises and some repeat winners of these all-important industry awards, the GfK Adding Value Awards.

Gary Lamb, managing director of GfK, explained how the Adding Value Awards are determined.

“As you may remember from previous years, the Adding Value Awards go to the suppliers who have generated the most additional retail sales revenue, year-on-year, for their respective industry sectors,” said Lamb.

In the Adding Value Award for Small Domestic Appliances, Breville was runner-up, increasing the category by $12 million, but the winner for the second year, Dyson, generated an additional $21 million at retail.

In Major Domestic Appliances, Electrolux grew by $20 million on 2007, but Bosh grew a staggering 31 per cent over the year and added just over $33 million in retail sales value.

JVC finished runner up in the Digital Imaging Category, but the winner of this award was Canon, which added $10 million to achieve a retail turnover of $260 million.

In the new IT Adding Value Award, Apple generated an additional $50 million in retail sales but was eclipsed for the award by Asus, which grew by a phenomenal 91 per cent to inject $75 million in retail sales into the category.

AV was another new Adding Value Award category and it was won by Sony, which created $186 million additional retail sales dollars for the AV category. Samsung was runner up on $163 million additional dollars for retailers.

The final GfK Adding Value Award was Converging Technologies.

“The next time you’re reading about the economic doom-and-gloom, think about this: the top three brands in this category, between them, generated half-a-billion additional dollars at retail,” said Gary Lamb.

Panasonic finished third in this award category, creating a massive $130 million of additional sales dollars, however, the top two companies in this award category were extremely close.

“Between them, they delivered $370 million extra dollars into retailers’ tills; and yet only $8 million dollars separated their respective achievements,” said Lamb.

“The runner-up for the GfK Adding Value Award for Converging Technologies is the category brand-leader, Sony; but the winner, and for the second year in succession, is Samsung.”