Five Retailers Named gia Global Honorees

Retailers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Turkey and the United Kingdom were named 2015 Global Innovation Award (gia) Global Honorees by the International Home + Housewares Show (IH+HS) and the International Housewares Association (IHA), the global sponsors and organizers of the gia program.

Honorees were Koskela, Australia; Presentes Rodriquez, Brazil; Hudson’s Bay, Canada; Jumbo, Turkey; and John Lewis, United Kingdom. 

The global gia jury, consisting of four retail/visual merchandising experts and seven editors and publishers of co-sponsoring housewares trade publications from around the world, selected the gia Global Honorees from the winners previously chosen in their respective countries by the national gia sponsors. In addition, the Martin M. Pegler Award for Excellence in Visual Merchandising was awarded to Organizza of Argentina. 

The gia program was created by the IHA and IH+HS to foster innovation and excellence in home and housewares retailing throughout the world. Since the launch of gia in 2000, there have been more than 320 gia retail award-winners from 40 countries on six continents.

The competition is structured on a two-tier level, national and global, evaluating retailers 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; and innovation.

Co-sponsoring the country-specific gia award programs with IHA are housewares trade publications worldwide, which sponsor national gia programs in their respective countries. This year, 25 national gia winners from 24 countries were selected by co-sponsoring trade publications with targeted distribution in more than 30 countries on five continents. All winners were automatically entered in the global competition, where the global jury selected the final gia Global Honorees. 

Both gia national winners and Global Honorees were recognized and prominently featured at the IH+HS. A gia awards dinner was held at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel. In addition, the national gia winners were showcased in a special gia display in the Hall of Global Innovation, in the Lakeside Center Lobby, and large gia winner banners spanned the walkway connecting the Lakeside Center to the Grand Concourse.