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GENERAL NEWS www.kitchenwarenews.com n MARCH 2019 n KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW 5 BY AMANDA HELT Exhibitors and store owners are planning to bring their A-game to the International Housewares Association's International Home + Housewares Show (IH+HS) this month and are already planning for a trend-forward approach to this season. Marc Wade, Director of Business Development at Messermeister, who's attended IH+HS for the last 20 years, said last year's show was good and strong. "I know everyone has really been watching the growth of the show, and who's attending, and what they're talking about for these last few years. Last year, people felt excited about the growth of their brick and mortar business and their retail stores again," he said. "It felt like everything was back to normal again." This year, some are facing the market with new strategies to take on the show and reinvent themselves a little. Clark Stone, National Sales Director of Wüsthof, says his company will be coming to the show dressed up in something new as the company plans to completely rebrand. Cordon Bleu will be launching its new BIA Kitchen and Home collection and taking orders on many of the products for the first time at IH+HS. " We are really trying to bring the millennial customer inside our store. Which, we're a 65-years- old company, we must reinvent a little," said Brenda Moore, the Western Regional Sales Manager for Cordon Bleu. " We think that the customers' tastes are changing in the stores as well and if we're not trend-forward a little bit, sometimes is takes a few years to catch up to that trend. I've had customers come back and they'd looked at our Zenith Collection last year. They weren't sure. But this year they are drawn to it." Messermeister will be taking orders for the first time on its new natural looking Performance Line. " We have a new Performance Line that 's on the high end side. Using a powdered steel blade. It 's an absolute razor blade," said Mark Wade, Director of Business Development. "People are getting serious about learning how to cook and want the best tools for that. People realize that they don't need a ton of them, so open stock sales are very KUDU Grills, an innovator in outdoor cooking equipment, is challenging the grill industry by focusing on "experiential engineering" versus traditional outdoor cooking methods. According to KUDU Inventor and Chief Customer Officer Stebin Horne, "Today's consumers seek to maximize how they spend their time. They realize every moment counts, particularly when it comes to how they commune with f riends and family. The KUDU system is engineered to make the most of the human experience through its dynamic versatility. With its dual functionality as a grill and vertical fire pit, our customers f requently comment on The KUDU being the centerpiece of their backyard events. The KUDU takes us back to a time when fire was the focal point for both social and culinary interaction. For thousands of years humans have been gathering around open fires for fellowship and to cook together. There is something inescapably primal about open fire cooking, it is engrained in who we are as humans," says Horne. The KUDU has its origins in South Africa, where early humans gathered in caves thousands of years ago to cook meat over fire for the very first time. Quite a few years after that, Georgia boy Stebin Horne traveled to South Africa to meet the family of the woman he'd fallen in love with. He quickly fell in love with South African culture. The communal "braais", where families and friends gathered regularly around an open flame to cook, eat, and socialize in an unhurried way, gave Stebin inspiration for The KUDU Grill. The KUDU takes the guesswork out of open fire cooking for all grilling skill levels, from beginner to professional, by using a convenient elevation bar system. Users can quickly and easily adjust cooking temperatures by positioning grilling surfaces to various heights relative to the heat source, creating ultimate versatility. This multifunctional design allows for the cooking of multiple dishes at once in a variety of formats, from cast-iron seared to smoked and everything in between. After the meal, the KUDU converts into an efficient and beautiful fire pit with its patented fire rings feature. The experiential cooking world is rapidly growing, and consumers are looking to replicate that experience at home. The KUDU is a residential-focused outdoor cooking product that makes open fire cooking a reality and creates a user experience that many are longing for. Visit www.kudugrills.com to learn more. KN important. People may be just learning what a good knife is. They are looking people to tell them what knife they 're looking for and we're trying to sharpen our story there." The GoodCook will be featuring several products that were designed for meal prep enthusiasts. For example, the GoodCook Hand-Held Spiralizer features three interchangeable blades to create a choice of thin spiral, ribbon-cut and thick vegetable spirals. Riedel plans to bring new mini decanters to the show along with a line of glasses called the Fatto A Mano series that have a touch of color to the stem of the glass. Of course only time will tell what "the next big thing" is and what trends will stick to the market, but in an attempt to skip the learning cur ve on what 's hot, IH+HS will offer special talks at the Design Theater centering around major industry concerns and has invited back for the second time trend specialist Helen Jamieson, Senior Trend Strategist at Trend Bible. Jamieson told the International Housewares Association that she's always in tune to what people are interested in: "I never cease to be fascinated by social and cultural change, what this means for how we will live in the future and for the sorts of product, ser vices and environments we will need and want. As a trend forecaster, I'm always tuned in to what 's happening around me, looking for early signs of change in almost everything." "The home was traditionally a private space where only our direct family or those with an invite would get to see how we live and the things we own; social media has changed that significantly. Many once- private, at-home occasions are now published online, f rom the first moments of waking up in the morning to what 's eaten for supper, or the weekend's cake baking activity," she said. "This has had significant impact on the design aesthetic of products consumers want to buy. Housewares products that ordinarily were purchased for functionality now have to look great and be Instagram-worthy." KN Thinking Trend-Forward at International Home + Housewares Show New Grill Combines Fire Pit with Culinary Capability General News

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