Tableware Team
TableWare
EDITOR KATE BIRCH kate@lemapublishing.co.uk
ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER PAUL YEOMANS pyeomans@lemapublishing.co.uk
PUBLISHER MARK NAISH mark@lemapublishing.co.uk
MANAGING DIRECTOR MALCOLM NAISH malcolm@lemapublishing.co.uk
PRODUCTION DIRECTOR PAUL NAISH paul@lemapublishing.co.uk
DESIGNER MARIAN MCNAMARA marian@lemapublishing.co.uk
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TableWare www.tablewareinternational.com
INTERNATIONAL
Month: March/April 2016
2
Issue: 1
134
Volume: 138
INTERNATIONAL
I
nternationality has been the buzzword of the entire show season with the main tableware spring shows delivering more internationality – exhibitors and visitors – than ever before. At Ambiente, the world’s leading consumer-goods fair, 55 per cent of visitors were from outside Germany, more than ever before, with 137,000 buyers hailing from an incredible 143 countries. “The number of international visitors has risen yet again,” says Andreas Buske, CEO, Zwiesel Kristallglas. And while some exhibitors like Zwiesel were encouraged at seeing such a “large number of US buyers”, others were pleased with the Eastern European turn-out considering the current economic difficulties here, and yet others enjoyed brisk business from Iranian buying groups. “The lifting of sanctions with Iran means every Iranian is at the show,” says Bill Robodee, CEO, Nambe, who witnessed good business from Iran at Ambiente. Homi Milano in January was one of the first trade shows in Europe visited by a delegation of Iranian buyers, while Russia also arrived with a large delegation despite the complex economic situation there. In fact, the two-year-old show Homi Milano saw international growth, both in participation and visitors, and this January achieved a record number of visitors. What emerged during four days of Homi, says Fiera Milano CEO, Corrado Peraboni, is that of a “market making a comeback, but one that is incredibly diversified – buyers are increasing but orders aren’t as large and are more focused on ‘just-in-time’ strategies”. What also emerged during show season were exciting consumer and design trends; from the rise of casual dining to heritage companies returning to their archives for inspiration, we’ve spotlighted these throughout the issue. Discover the trends in our review of Homi Milano on page 84 and don’t miss our extensive annual Ambiente Trend Watch from Frankfurt on page 78 – everything from the return of the coupe shape to colour on everything, even crystal, to coastal motifs. On our regular product trend page, we highlight the fashionable fusion of greens and blues as consumers look to bring the outside in (see page 20); and our tableware trend analyst Donna Ferrari reports from New York on page 22, discussing how products with top-notch design power to stand the test of time are catching and keeping consumers’ attention.
“Internationalilty has been the buzzword of the entire show season” Our regular retail columnist Barry Seaman also weighs in on the shows on page 34, delivering his report on spring season, including Top Drawer and Spring Fair, and spotlighting his favourite tabletop finds. Looking forward, we preview the upcoming New York Tabletop Show on page 72 outlining market movements and happenings and highlighting what exciting product brands will unveil at 41 Madison. The other current industry buzzword is Millennials, a consumer group that’s now more influential in homeware than Baby Boomers. We tackle this key consumer group head on (page 30), discovering what demands Millennials have when it comes to entertaining at home and offering advice to retailers on how to connect with them. As always, we have our Annual Glass Buyers’ Guide (page 42) in which we investigate the renaissance of the luxury crystal category and look at how private and high-end hospitality projects are providing opportunities for luxury crystal brands; and in our extended hospitality feature on page 60 we look at the growth of this sector for the tableware industry as well as highlighting the companies offering HoReCa-focused solutions. Finally, we visit the Czech Republic this month to profile Czech retailer Potten & Pannen, a chain of 11 stores across the country, and on page 34, interview founder Pavel Stanek; and to celebrate 100 years of the late Philip Rosenthal, we pay tribute to both the man and the company on page 26 and outline the latest collections that make up the Anniversary Collection of Rosenthal. Enjoy!
Kate Birch Get social with See our latest news: www.tablewareinternational.com ‘Like’ us: Facebook.com/tablewareintmag ‘Follow’ us on Twitter: @tablewareintmag ‘Pin’ us: pinterest.com/tablewareintmag