The International Home + Housewares Show (IH+HS) and International Housewares Association (IHA), the global sponsors and organisers of the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) program, have announced the national giawinners of 2018-2019.
UK independent, Potters Cookshop, Hockley is one of the 30 outstanding home and housewares retailers from 29 countries around the globe.
The gia programme was created to foster innovation and excellence in home and housewares retailing. Since its launch there have been more than 430 giaretail award winners, from 47 countries on six continents.
The 2018-2019 national gia winners are: Interio of Argentina, Jumbled of Australia, Manufactum of Austria, Tania Bulhões of Brazil, G D’Aoust & Cie of Canada, LivingKitchen of China, Cachivachesof Columbia, Bahne of Denmark, Shoji of France, S-KULTUR of Germany, Ajmal Bismi Enterprise of India, Arboretum Home and Garden Heaven of Ireland, Abitare Baleri of Italy, Futako Tamagawa of Japan, Liverpool of Mexico, THE One of UAE, La Cuisine of The Netherlands, Città of Portugal, 9design of Poland, Glediz of Russia, Kitchen Art Vietnam of Vietnam, GADGETS&CUINA of Spain, Iittala Rörstrand Store of Sweden, Elsasser-Peter of Swizerland, Porland of Turkey, Potters Cookshop of UK, sobremesas of Uruguay, Absolutely Fabulous (gift retaliers) of USA and Artichoke of USA.
The national winners will be celebrated at a giagala on March 2, coinciding with the IH+HS. The event will also see the announcement of five global honorees and winners of the Martin M Pegler and giaDigital Commerce Award. The exceptional retailers will be evaluated on:
- Overall mission statement, vision and strategy
- Store design and layout
- Visual merchandising, displays and window displays
- Marketing, advertising and promotions
- Customer service and staff training
- Innovation
The national winners also are featured in the giashowcase in the Hall of Global Innovation with an exhibit showing their award-winning store design and branding ideas, exquisite visual merchandising and innovative displays. Banners for the national winners can be seen in the walkway that connects the Grand Concourse and the Lakeside Centre.
gia is also part of a larger education initiative that includes seminars by retail experts and coverage in international housewares publications. As part of gia’seducational offering, on Monday, March 4, the four giaexpert jurors (Wolfgang Gruschwitz, Scott Kohno, Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen and Anne Kong) will present a special session in the Innovation Theatre: “Innovative Retail Trends 2019.”
See www.housewares.org/show/gia-retail.
For more information on the 2019 IH+HS, visit www.housewares.org.
Top: Potters Cookshop is flying the flag for UK retail excellence.
