The Gift and Life Instyle Awards (GALA) returned to Sydney for its second year to celebrate and recognise the hard work and creative excellence of exhibiting brands over the past retail year.
Held on 21 February 2015, it was a night of entertainment, networking and celebration at Darling Harbour’s fabulous floating venue, Dockside Pavilion, where the 2015 GALA winners were awarded with the help of hosts for the evening, Lifestyle Channel’s Colin and Justin.
GALA awards provide the perfect opportunity for the industry to join together and celebrate creative and innovative products from both Life Instyle and Reed Gift Fairs trade fairs.
“Reed Gift Fairs and Life Instyle were delighted with the high calibre of wholesalers who submitted product for consideration,” says Sally de Swart, group exhibition director, Reed retail portfolio.
“The independent judging panel had a difficult task in selecting the finalist from this year’s strong submissions. The GALA award enables small and large businesses to position their products and be recognised as a market leader through winning this prestigious award.”
The awards celebrate and honour the work of the Australian and New Zealand gift and homewares wholesale industry and consist of 18 award categories across varied key product areas.
One of these categories is Home, with OneWorld Collection winning the award for its rattan wine cooler. Managing director Greg Ollerhead says it is really rewarding to be recognised for all the hard work that goes into designing and creating new products.
“There is so much that goes on behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t realise how hard it is to develop new products from scratch,” he says. “We are also extremely grateful to have now received this award for two years running in this category. We are going to have to lift our game even more now and come up with something really spectacular for next year.”
Echoing the same sentiment was another two-time winner, Annabel Trends, which after winning an award last year decided to try its luck again this year, scooping the fashion accessories category gong with its popular gummies.
“The awards are great industry recognition for all of our hard work,” director Sally Dunn says. “We see them as being an important standard for the industry as whole and we are always excited to receive an award. Since winning last year, and also now this year’s most recent nomination and win, I feel that retailers are more aware of their status and in many cases it has translated into increased sales. We look forward to hopefully making a hat trick next year.”
One of the big winners of the evening was wholesaler BeyondCool, winning not one but two awards in the eco and gift categories. Director Teena Townsend believes the awards are invaluable in raising awareness of the company and brands, as well as for growing the business.
“To our suppliers whose brands we represent in Australia winning the awards acknowledges and rewards our efforts in promoting their brands in Australia and sets us apart from many of the other importers and wholesalers that don’t place importance or value on industry recognition and great brands,” she explains.
Villa Mondo won the body, bath and fragrance category with Alassis ArtGlass candles, and owner Wendy Fry says entering the GALA awards was a test of their faith in a different approach to the market and an exciting endorsement that the company made a good choice.
“I wanted to find something different to offer our customers and Alassis ArtGlass candles were just that,” she explains. “When we approached Alassis to represent them I knew it was a very full market and possibly silly of us to think we could be successful. There are just so many local and imported home fragrance companies with really beautiful product, it was hard to imagine we could make a mark.
“Honestly we are really amazed to receive the award amongst such worthy competition. I hope the award will stimulate more interest for the Alassis core range and the exquisite limited editions that will be offered from time to time, including the New York Botanical Garden collaboration with Alassis coming out in August.”
