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DET announces 39 winners of its Business Excellence Awards

The awards recognise excellence in diverse disciplines, including customer service, digital transformation, and alignment with the government’s strategic focus

The Department of Economy and Tourism (DET) in Dubai has announced the winners of its 28th Business Excellence Awards, which honour outstanding practices and the commitment among businesses towards achieving organisational excellence in customer happiness.

The winners were announced at a ceremony with over 1,500 attendees, held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The virtual ceremony saw 21 businesses from the retail, services, healthcare, hospitality, and e-commerce sectors recognised under the Dubai Service Excellence Scheme (DSES), while another 18 from varied sectors, including tourism, service-driven organisations, business associations and industrial establishments, won in the different categories of the Dubai Quality Awards (DQA).

Hisense Middle East’s Customer Service Department was the winner of the Dubai Quality Global Award, which recognises multinationals that demonstrate not only their commitment to excellence practices, but also an alignment with economic development and social happiness in the UAE or the regions they operate in. Zulekha Hospital in the ‘Healthcare’ category and Transguard Cash in the ‘Services’ category won the coveted Dubai Quality Gold Award for their noteworthy performance in business excellence, in their respective sectors.

The Dubai Smart Industry Award – added to the DQA series in 2019 in association with Dubai Industries and Exports, an agency of DET, to involve the industrial sector in the excellence march in Dubai and encourage digital transformation – had two winners this year including Lipton Jebel Ali Factory Unilever for ‘Manufacturing’ and Al Ansari Exchange for ‘Finance’.

The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai JBR under ‘Tourism’; Lulu Hypermarket Al Barsha under ‘Retail’; and Anchor Allied Factory under ‘Manufacturing’ won the Dubai Quality Award.

The Dubai Quality Appreciation Award had eight winners from four different sectors including: Al Ansari Exchange under ‘Finance’; LM Exchange under ‘Finance’; VFS GCC under ‘Services’; AG Facilities Solutions under ‘Services’; Lin Scan Advanced Pipelines & Tanks Services also under ‘Services’; NMC Royal Hospital, Sharjah under ‘Healthcare’; AG-PCS Switchgear Manufacturing under ‘Manufacturing’; and Arabian Extrusions Factory also under ‘Manufacturing’.

Smart Life, and the CEO Clubs Network were honoured under the ‘Representative Entities’ category of the Dubai Quality Appreciation Awards, which recognises the efforts of business groups to engage their members, provide them with value-added services and lead the respective industry segment they operate in.

The Dubai Service Excellence Scheme had 21 winners added this year in the ‘Best Service Performance Brand’ and ‘Best Service Performing Branch’ categories.

The Dubai Mall (Shopping Centres), Joyalukkas Jewellery (Fashion Retail), Sharjah Islamic Bank (Services), aafaq Islamic Finance (Services), Life Pharmacy (Health & Wellness), REEL CINEMAS (Hospitality & Entertainment), aswaq retail (Hypermarkets & General Retail), Grand Stores (Hypermarkets & General Retail), Interiors (Specialised Retail), Arabian Automobiles (Specialised Retail), DFM – Contact Centre (e-Services Contact Centre), 6th Street (e-Services, Mobile Application), and Matalan (GCC) were the Best Brands identified under DSES.

The Face Shop – Mirdif City Centre (Fashion Retail); Aldo – Mall of the Emirates (Fashion Retail); Al Rostamani International Exchange – Tourist Club Area Abu Dhabi (Services); Al Masraf – Sheikh Zayed Road Branch; Aster Pharmacy 122 (Health & Wellness); Tim Hortons – Jumeirah Centre (Hospitality & Entertainment); Lulu Hypermarket – Arabian Centre (Hypermarkets & General Retail); and Eros Digital Home – Dubai Mall, were recognised by DSES as the ‘Best Branches.’

Helal Saeed Al Marri, Director General of the Department of Economy and Tourism, while addressing the ceremony said excellence is in Dubai’s DNA, and more relevant today as the city accelerates into the new post-pandemic reality.

“Dubai’s reputation on the global stage has been further bolstered by this excellence in approach and we are seeing this across many areas – strong economic rebound, leadership in tourism, and in attracting new companies, investors and talent. The Awards have also remained well-aligned with the vision and strategy guiding Dubai to be a future hub of business and industries, a Smart City, and a Digital Economy,” Al Marri said.

Congratulating the winners, assessors, mystery shoppers and the Business Excellence Department in DET for their contributions to the excellence march, Al Marri added that such proactive, and collaborative, efforts were behind Dubai going past the pandemic challenge, re-opening to the world in record time, and welcoming the world, with Expo 2020 Dubai.

The Business Excellence Awards have had more than 650 winners selected from 22,000 participants during the past 27 years. The latest cycle of the Awards saw an increase of over 10 per cent in applicants while the net increase over the last 28 years have been more than 300 per cent, which demonstrates the level of consolidation the concepts of quality and excellence have achieved among businesses and service establishments across the UAE.

The Dubai Quality Award encourages and motivates organisations to adopt an international framework, with best practices, to achieve excellence and be recognised as role models. The Dubai Service Excellence Scheme is a one-of-a-kind initiative that aims to promote excellence in customer service standards in the business community, in order to create a unique and memorable shopping experience in UAE.

business@khaleejtimes.com