Global Innovation Awards

Generations of Inspiration

Michelle Hespe speaks to Patricia Lockhart, owner and director of Uruguay’s award-winning retail store, Bazar La Iberica and its focus on generations of inspiration. Achieving 100 years in business is something worth talking about. But Bazar La Iberica, a family-run retailer operating in a country with only 3 million inhabitants (half of which live on very low income) has…

Recycling and Display Props

By Martin M. Pegler Props, I would imagine, is short for “properties” and “properties” can be anything that adds something to a scene, a setting, a display. If we were to look around us, we would see we are standing in the center of a field of display props: from the furniture in the room, the plants, the unused rolls of wallpaper, the tableware, the collection of pots and…

Introducing Anne Kong: gia’s New Expert Juror

The IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) program is guided by a wealth of housewares industry and retail expertise: the national gia sponsors are the leading professional housewares trade publications in their own countries and adding credibility to the program, the four expert jurors are internationally recognized experts in visual merchandising, store design and marketing. The…

Inspiring the Industry: Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen

gia Expert Juror and CEO of ReisbyConsult, Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen, is inspiring the retail industry. Michelle Hespe finds out how he does it. Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen would never use the word “bored” because he is continually entertained by how much inspiration there is around him. He has drawn from this inspiration to carve out a career for himself in retail,…

On Trend

The four gia expert jurors — Martin M. Pegler, Wolfgang Gruschwitz, Scott Kohno and Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen — are from different sectors of retail, including store design and architecture, branding, visual merchandising and displays, marketing and technology. They always need to be at the forefront of trends driving the retail world, so who better to present the latest…

Lake Living

The Lakehouse from Canada was one of the five global honorees at this year’s IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia). The store reflects the spirit of the community in which it’s based, inspiring locals with products to suit their lifestyle, and offering tourists a taste of lake living that they can take home. Five years ago, Sue and Ben Boschman were at the International Home +…

Seven Decades of Style

This year, Illums Bolighus not only celebrated seven successful decades in the retail business, but also became one of the top retailers in the world at the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia). When the Marketing Manager of Illums Bolighus, Sofie Molls, took to the stage at the IHA Global Innovation Awards in Chicago, there was a palpable sense of elation in the air. After a…

Kitchenware Veteran

One of five global honorees in the 2016 IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) — Kitchen Shop in Malaysia — is out to help people live more healthily while also taking care of the environment. Next year, Katrin BJ, the Malaysian holding company for 25 homeware and kitchen retail specialty shops in Malaysia, including Kitchen Shop, House of Presentation (HOS), La Gourmet Shop,…

Success to the Bold Innovator Friends

In March this year, retail store K’OOK! from the Netherlands became one of five global honorees celebrated at the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) in Chicago. In 2005, two friends with a passion for cooking and a desire for a new life, joined forces and established a small 35 square meter retail store in the Netherlands’ Wormerveer. Fast forward eleven years, and K’OOK!…