Reed Launches New Show at Hardware

Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 3/27/2006

Reed Exhibitions will launch The Homewares Show alongside its Natl. Hardware Show and Lawn & Garden World May 8–10, 2007, at Orlando's Orange County Convention Center.

The show for home goods will also collocate with George Little Management's Gourmet Housewares Show, which has taken place alongside the hardware show since 2005.

The launch responds to growing housewares sales among the hardware show's retailers, including big-box shops like Home Depot, said Rob Cappiello, industry vice president for the hardware show.

"The way we put together our show is based on what our attendees want," he said. "They want to see more and more housewares."

The home goods show will span 150,000 square feet, said Cappiello, who also noted that the category isn't new for the hardware show, which in 1999 and 2000 displayed nearly 300,000 sq. ft. of housewares.

The home goods show is expected to attract 3,000 to 4,000 more attendees to the collocated shows. Cappiello said the additional visitors would primarily be from existing retail firms sending more representatives.

Susan Corwin, vice president and show manager for GLM's Gourmet Housewares Show, said the new Reed show "is not head-to-head at all with us," because the home goods show will feature products like cleaning equipment and washers and dryers, while the gourmet show features more upscale products.

Both Cappiello and Corwin said the show, announced March 14, is not being launched in response to competition from the Intl. Home & Housewares Show that took place March 12–14 in Chicago.

While the hardware show's tagline is "If it's at the home, it's at the show," the IHHS show, organized by the Intl. Housewares Assn. (which in 2004 added a gourmet home and food district and changed its dates to two months before the Gourmet Housewares Show), also touts that it offers everything for the home.

"We do not look at competitive shows," Cappiello said.