Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
The International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago and the International Housewares Association (IHA), global sponsors and organisers of the Global Innovation Award (gia) programme, have announced the 2015 gia Global Honorees.
The five Global Honorees are: John Lewis (UK), Koskela (Australia), Presentes Rodriguez (Brazil) Hudson’s Bay (Canada) and Jumbo (Turkey). In addition, the Martin M. Pegler Award for Excellence in Visual Merchandising was awarded to Organizza of Argentina.
The gia programme was created by the show and the IHA to foster innovation and excellence in home and housewares retailing throughout the world. Since the launch of gia in 2000, there have been over 320 gia retail award winners, from 40 countries on six continents.
The competition is structured on a two-tier level: national and global. Co-sponsoring the national gia award programmes with IHA are over 25 housewares trade publications worldwide, which sponsor national gia programmes in their respective countries. Juries appointed by each publication select national winners, who then participate in the global competition, held at the International Home + Housewares Show, which takes place in March each year.
Up to five retailers are further honoured as gia Global Honorees based on the determination of a panel of international retail experts. In addition, one national winner is selected for the Martin M. Pegler Award for Excellence in Visual Merchandising.
Retailers are evaluated on their 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 and innovation.
This year, 25 national gia winners from 24 countries were selected. Both gia national winners and Global Honorees are currently being prominently featured at the International Home + Housewares Show, which ends today (March 10). Lakeland was the gia UK winner and a Global Honoree in 2013-2014.
Pictured are John Lewis buyers Louise Stuart (Head Buyer for Textiles and Bathroom), Nicola Hattersley (Cookshop Buyer), Zoe Stewart (Buyer for Utility, Cleaning and Laundry) and Holly Dolan (Junior Buyer) with gia juror Wolfgang Gruschwitz.
