Five top retailers honoured at the gia
Last night the homewares industry gathered at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago for the 2013 Global Innovation Awards (gia).
Five global honourees were chosen from 22 countries and the winners include Linen Chest (Canada), Quality Living (Italy), Kookpunt (the Netherlands), Cooks of Crocus Hill (US) and Taylor Road Homewares (New Zealand).
For Anne Heng, owner of Taylor Road Homewares, winning a gia award was a complete surprise.
“We definitely didn’t expect to win, the other stores are fantastic and of such high calibre,” she says.
The global gia jury, consisting of four retail/visual merchandising experts and seven editors and publishers of co-sponsoring homewares trade publications from around the world, selected the five gia global honorees. In addition, the Martin M. Pegler Award for Excellence in Visual Merchandising was awarded to Quality Living of Italy.
A special honourary gia award was presented to India’s TRRAIN (Trust for Retailers and Retail Associates of India) for their vision of empowering people in Indian retail. TRRAIN is an organisation that works toward improving the lives of people in retail through various initiatives.
The International Home + Housewares Show and the International Housewares Association (IHA) are global sponsors and organisers of the gia program.
