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blog: By Piritta Törrö, International Marketing & Business Development
Michelle Hespe caught up with Anne and John Heng, after their New Zealand-based store, Taylor Road Homewares, became a Global Honoree at the Global Innovation Awards (gia) in Chicago. Organized by the International Housewares Association (IHA) during the International Home + Housewares Show, the awards have been running for thirteen years, and are considered the Oscars® of retailing in the home and housewares industry.
The Taylor Road to Success
It’s not every day that a retail store from a small country swoops in to score a Global Innovation Award, but Taylor Road Homewares from New Zealand did just that. The store was up against 22 national gia winners from Australia, Europe, Asia and the Americas, and it became one of five global honorees, chosen by a jury consisting of four retail/visual merchandising experts and seven editors and publishers of home and housewares trade publications from around the world.
Owners of Taylor Road Homewares, John and Anne Heng, have travelled a long, rewarding, and interesting road to arrive where they are today, as winners of a gia award, for a store established only three years ago. But it is their combined history and experience that has helped them to create a winner right from the start…
John and Anne moved from New Zealand to Australia in 1988, when John took on the role of Group CEO Asia Pacific as a part of a multinational housewares company. They lived in an idyllic village in the Blue Mountains near Sydney, and after seven years, the couple returned to New Zealand when John became the Group CEO for a New Zealand housewares company. That role lasted for 13 years and saw him travelling the world as the company expanded into Australia, the UK and the U.S., while developing an export market in over 50 countries.
John retired in 2008, but a year later, he and Anne decided to do something together. After all, they had met when Anne was the promotions manager for a large retail complex in Auckland, so they figured their combined skills could lead to something enjoyable and profitable. On the side, not ever completely retiring, John had started an export consultancy, so they were still in the retail loop.
The couple bought into a franchise in New Zealand that unbeknownst to them, was in financial difficulty and unfortunately went into receivership the following year. But as any great businessman knows, any failure presents opportunity, and John brought together three independent franchise stores, to form a company, buying some large shipments of goods previously destined for the defunct group. By default, he became an importer. Read the rest of this entry »
Quality Living in Verona, Italy, is exactly what it sounds like – a business inspiring people to have a quality lifestyle. Paolo Zanza, President of the company, and Vice President Mario Fedrigoli, have united their business acumen and experience in real estate, to devise a retail store that not only inspires shoppers with exciting new housewares and home products, but also sells them the homes to put their goods in.
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