(23 October 2014 – Hong Kong) New World Department Store China Limited (“NWDS” or the “Company”; Hong Kong stock code: 825), one of the largest owners and operators of department stores in Mainland China, has successfully completed its nationwide environmental activity, the fourth “Green Mid-Autumn Festival- Moon Cake Box Recycling Campaign” taking place from 5 to 18 September, with satisfaction. The number of moon cake boxes collected this year increased to nearly 3,600, totaling over 22,000 units over the years. The “Moon Cake Box Creative Design Competition” inaugurated this year has received enthusiastic support from customers with around 420 entries and over 2,600 votes in the poll, demonstrating that the campaign was effective in raising people’s environmental awareness.

In order to effectively promote the campaign, NWDS stores fully leveraged its online and offline channels including their in-store displays, broadcasts, Weibo and WeChat for promotional purposes. Entering the fourth year, business partners’ and customers’ engagement level in the campaign were further increased. For instance, on top of the regular complimentary giveaways such as handmade soaps and reusable shopping bags to participating customers, some tenants offered generous sponsorships such as yoga experience cards and cash coupons to make the recycling campaign more massive; couple with customers’ developing habits to reserve redundant moon cake boxes for the campaign, NWDS stores managed to collect a total of about 3,600 moon cake boxes. All moon cake boxes collected have been sent to recyclers and the proceeds gathered have all been donated to local charitable organizations, such as Heilongjiang Volunteers Alliance, Tianjin Children’s Welfare Institute and Shanghai Langao Senior Citizen Home, which do not only promote environmental protection, but also convey love to the community.

The “Moon Cake Box Creative Design Competition” inaugurated this year aims to encourage the public to create moon cake box-inspired handicraft with redundant moon cake boxes, so as to further advocate the message of recycling. The competition was well received and collected around 420 entries from stores nationwide. The creative handicrafts, including jewelry boxes, storage boxes and decors, fully showed the ideas and creativity of the contestants. To enhance the public participation, the Company invited customers from stores nationwide and “NWDS CSR” Weibo Fans to vote on the winner from the 12 shortlisted entries in “One person, one vote” manner. After a hard-fought series of over 2,600 votes, the “Extension of Love - Green Living” created by Zhao Hong from Harbin received the Gold Award with overwhelming majority of 542 votes, and other winners have also been successfully elected as follows:

During the campaign period, all stores initiated various green-related themed activities in order to arouse customers’ awareness on the recycling campaign, and to share the joy of Mid-Autumn Festival with the public. For instance, Wuhan New World Department Store-Wuchang Branch Store organized the “Taste of Moonlight-Starbucks Moon Cake DIY”. With the on-site guidance of professional baking master, customers can exert their creativity on moon cakes design and plating presentation while Tianjin New World Department Store and Harbin New World Department Store held snowy moon cake DIY workshop. Such events, integrating the elements of charity, environmental protection, parent-children, interactivity and fun, were highly acclaimed by customers, who expressed their wish for more such meaningful events in the future.

Ms. Rebecca Woo, Corporate Affairs Director and Chairman of Sustainability Steering Committee of NWDS, said, “Time flies, and here we have Mid-Autumn Festival again. ‘Green Mid-Autumn Festival- Moon Cake Box Recycling Campaign’, which has been organized for four consecutive years, has become an environmental event that people are looking forward to; many customers specifically reserved moon cake boxes for us which shows that the campaign succeeds to nurture customers’ waste recycling habits. Hence, yet amid the advocate of reducing excessive packaging in recent years, we feel very encouraged to see that the number of moon cake boxes has been increased to nearly 3,600. In addition, the over 400 entries of the ‘Moon Cake Box Creative Design Competition’ inaugurated this year deeply impressed us with their extremely high quality. The series of events have won praise from customers to successfully root the green concept of ‘trash to treasure’ in the public, making the Mid-Autumn Festival more meaningful.”

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