Crate & Barrel Philippines-bound

US homewares retailer Crate & Barrel will enter the Philippines.

The company has partnered with local retail conglomerate SM Retail to open an unspecified number of stores in the Asian nation, the first of which will commence trading on November 20 in Manila’s Mega Fashion Hall.

More stores will follow in the first quarter of 2015, to be run by SM Retail subsidiary HMS Development Corp.

Crate and Barrel opened its doors in 1962 as a family business started by Gordon and Carole Segal in Chicago, Illinois. The couple was inspired by the simple, well-designed, affordable products they had purchased on their honeymoon in Europe.

The Segals decided to open a home furnishings store, calling it ‘Crate and Barrel’ after the shipping crates and barrels which brought their inventory and became their first store fixtures. Working directly with European ateliers and factories to import their products, Crate and Barrel was among the first retailers to make modern tabletop and kitchenwares affordable to American consumers.

Today, Crate and Barrel is an international, multi-channel family of brands, known for exclusive housewares and furniture designs, excellent value and customer service.  Owned by the Otto Group of Hamburg, Germany, since 1998, the company operates stores in most major North American markets as well as international franchise locations in Dubai, Singapore and Mexico.

SM Retail has over 50 years of experience in the industry, operating a chain of department stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets located in key Philippines cities.

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