Five Global Innovation Awards (gia) retail recipients were honored at the International Home + Housewares Show (IH+HS) organized by the International Housewares Association (IHA) at a gala event.
The global honorees were Linen Chest of Canada, Quality Living of Italy, Kookpunt of Netherlands, Taylor Road Homewares of New Zealand and Cooks of Crocus Hill of the United States.
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 five 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 Quality Living of Italy.
A special honorary gia award was also presented to India’s TRRAIN (Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates of India), which works toward improving the lives of people in retail through various initiatives. The IHA and gia honored TRRAIN for its vision of empowering people in Indian retail.
gia was created in 1999, with the objective of fostering innovation and excellence in housewares retailing throughout the world. The competition is structured on a two-tier level, national and global, evaluating retailers within the following categories: overall mission statement 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, 23 national gia winners from 22 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 at the International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago, where the global jury selected the final gia Global Honorees.
