UAE homegrown Tavola is 2020 gia Global Honouree

UAE home-grown brand Tavola is among the 2020 gia global honourees. The Inspired Home Show and the International Housewares Association (IHA), the global sponsors and organisers of the IHA Global Innovation Awards (gia) programme, announced the 2020 gia Global Honourees for retail excellence during a live-streamed presentation earlier on April 23.

The 2020 Global Honourees are:

• Tavola – United Arab Emirates
• Reina Batata Bazar Boutique – Argentina
• Few and Far – Australia
• Isetan Shinjuku – Japan
• Central Department Store – Thailand
• PROMENU by MIRS Corporation – Ukraine

Also, the Martin M. Pegler Award for excellence in visual merchandising was awarded to Sibler AG of Switzerland. The gia Digital Commerce Award for excellence in online retailing was awarded to In&Out Cooking of Portugal.

“Congratulations to all of these outstanding retailers. Our expert jury thought this was such an exceptional year for entries they recognised six Global Honourees,” said Derek Miller, IHA president. “All of our national winners provide great examples of best-in-class housewares merchandising.”

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 gia Global Honourees from the winners previously chosen in their respective countries by the national gia sponsors. Because The Inspired Home Show was cancelled this year due to COVID-19, the global gia jury selected the gia Global Honourees during an online session in late March.

The gia programme 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 over 460 gia retail award winners, from 48 countries on six continents.

The competition is structured on a two-tier level, national and global, evaluating retailers within the following 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

Co-sponsoring the country-specific gia award programmes with IHA are housewares trade publications worldwide, which sponsor national gia programmes in their respective countries. This year, 32 national gia winners from 31 countries were selected by co-sponsoring trade publications with targeted distribution in over 50 countries on five continents. All winners were automatically entered in the global competition for The Inspired Home Show in Chicago. The Images RetailME sponsored Middle East entries representing the region were home-grown brands – Aura from Saudi Arabia and Tavola from the UAE.

Both gia national winners and Global Honourees are recognised in a gallery on TheInspiredHomeShow.com/Explore/Awards/gia-Excellence-in-Retailing. Because of the gia dinner did not take place this year, the 2019-2020 national winners and Global Honourees will be honoured at the gia awards dinner during The Inspired Home Show 2021.

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