Lorna Jane has emerged triumphant from the inaugural BRW & AMP Capital Shopping Centres Australian Retailer of the Year Awards.
The women's sportswear retailer took out the Outstanding Retailer of the Year Award, beating out fellow nominees including Oroton, The Athlete's Foot and women's online clothing store Birdsnest.
It is the first year the national awards have been staged and they come 21 years after Lorna Jane Clarkson opened her first retail store in Queensland.
Today, Lorna Jane operates 104 stores in Australia and has commenced expanding internationally with help from Champ Ventures, which came on board as a private investor in 2010.
Award administrators said it was Lorna Jane's continued expansion, excellent customer service and innovation “at a time when its competitors were failing” that earned it the award.
In other categories, The Athlete's Foot took home the prize for Innovation in Retail, emerging ahead of online business Shoes of Prey and OPSM Eye Hub (Luxottica).
Award organisers said The Athlete's Foot new store model - Big Foot - which pushes it further into the leisure footwear market was among its winning features. The new store concept has involved redesigning stores, increasing floorspace and retraining staff.
Other categories were dominated by retailers beyond the fashion sphere with New Retailer of the Year awarded to independent music store Mall Music; the Sustainability Retailing Award going to Bakers Delight; and the Best Use of Technology in Retail going to optical retailer Eyeclarity for its “myeyes” touch screen kiosks.
Finally, the Successful Marketing of the Year award went to healthy burger chain Grill'd for its Movember charity campaign.
The awards were judged by a panel that included the executive director of the Australian Centre for Retail Studies Colin McLeod, former Woolworths executive and current chairman of Fairfax Media Roger Corbett and the editor-in-chief of BRW magazine, Kate Mills.
The awards were sponsored by AMP Capital Shopping Centres which operates 36 sites across Australia and New Zealand. The centres house 3,000 retailers and include Warringah Mall (NSW), Knox Shopping Centre (VIC), Pacific Fair (QLD) and Garden City Booragoon (WA).