IHA Global Innovation Award winners announced

The Inspired Home Show and the International Housewares Association (IHA) have announced the national gia winners for 2021-2022, which include 33 outstanding home and housewares retailers from 32 countries around the globe. RetailME Award recipients for Most Admired Retailer of the Year: Home and Housewares (2020 and 2021) – Aura Living and DWELL – are among the winners this year. 

“In light of the challenges created by Covid, ongoing labor and shipping issues, The Inspired Home Show 2022 will be smaller in size this year, but with perhaps more opportunity than ever. Our industry is made up of hundreds of small, mid-size and large companies, and while some have chosen to sit this year out, once the last display is set and the doors at McCormick Place open, we will have over 1,000 suppliers on hand to display their latest products and innovations,” said Derek Miller, President & CEO, International Housewares Association.

The Inspired Home Show will be held from March 5^th to 7^th, 2022 in Chicago at McCormick Place, the first in-person gathering of the industry’s premier marketplace since 2019. The gia program was created by IHA and The Inspired Home Show (formerly the International Home + Housewares Show) to foster innovation and excellence in home and housewares retailing throughout the world. Since the launch of gia in 2000, there have been close to 500 gia retail award winners, from over 50 countries on six continents. 

“IHA staff have doubled our outreach to connect with as many U.S. Key Retailers as possible and are happy to report that the 2022 Show will have strong support from most of the major buyers—in fact, 82% of the top U.S. retailers have indicated that they plan to be in attendance. While the numbers within their delegations may be reduced from previous years, key decision makers within these retailers plan to attend to continue with much needed top-to-top meeting opportunities,” he said.

The 2021-2022 national gia winners are:

Country  Store Name       Store website

Argentina Paul French Gallery pauldeco.com

Australia MAKE Designed Objects makedesignedobjects.com

Belgium Dupont NV https://kookboetiek.be

Bermuda The Chefs Shop, Bermuda https://chefshopbermuda.shop

Brazil Westwing Brasil westwing.com.br

Canada HOME on water st. homeonwaterst.com

China Keye Casa keyecasa.com

Colombia Miscelandia miscelandia.co

Denmark Sinnerup sinnerup.dk

Eastern Europe –

Hungary KITCHENSHOP kitchenshop.hu

France La Maison Pernoise lamaisonpernoise.com

Germany Lorey lorey.de

India HomeTown – by Praxis Home Retail Limited hometown.in

Ireland Stock Design stockdesignonline.com

Italy Negozio Mori negoziomori.it

Japan KEYUCA keyuca.com

Middle East –

  United Arab Emirates DWELL dwellstores.ae

Netherlands Woerdman Kookkado woerdmankookgoedkoop.nl

Norway Hansen & Co hansenco.no

Poland Miloo Home miloohome.pl

Portugal In&Out Cooking inoutcooking.com

Russia Di Murano dimurano.ru

Saudi Arabia aura Living auraliving.com

South Africa Carrol Boyes carrolboyes.com

Southeast Asia – Taiwan hengstyle hengstyle.com

Spain La Oca laoca.es

Sweden Artilleriet The Kitchen artilleriet.se

Switzerland Sibler AG sibler.com

Turkey EnPlus enplus.com.tr

United Kingdom Jarrold jarrold.co.uk

Uruguay Kitchen & Cooking ehause.com.uy

USA – Gift Retailers Paddington Station paddingtonstationashland.com

USA – Housewares Retailers The Butler’s Pantry shopthebutlerspantry.com

The gia competition is structured on a two-tier level, national and global, to honor independent and multiple location home and housewares retailers for excellence in several business categories:

• 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
• Innovation

Each winner is invited to The Inspired Home Show in Chicago, where the global gia jury, consisting of four experts representing Asia, Europe and the Americas, plus a rotating group of co-sponsoring trade publication editors from around the world, will select up to five gia Global Honorees and the winners of the Martin M. Pegler Award for Excellence in Visual Merchandising and the gia Digital Commerce Award for Excellence in Online Retailing.  

On Saturday, March 5, the national winners will be honored at a festive awards dinner where the gia Global Honorees and winners of the Martin M. Pegler and gia Digital Commerce Award will be announced. In addition, the national winners are featured at the show, with banners and a special display in the Grand Concourse Walkway at McCormick Place.