Orgill nation meets in New Orleans
Heading into this week’s Orgill Spring Dealer Market in New Orleans, the show organizers point to participation from more than 1,000 vendors, a year-over-year gain in registrations and 900,000 square feet of exhibition space to explore.
“We’re feeling good about the Dealer Market,” said Greg Stine, executive vice president of marketing and communications.
The New Orleans event runs Feb 9 – 11, and runs in concert with the distributor’s Feb. 6-19 online buying event. Almost everything available live, will also be sold in online booths on the buying event web site, he said.
Before the live show officially begins, a Tech Symposium will kick off the live portion on Wednesday afternoon. “This event continues to grow and is demonstrating our efforts at leveraging technology for our dealers,” Stine said.
The floor itself opens at 7:30 am on Thursday. Here, attendees will have the opportunity to experience a replica of Germantown Hardware, part of the CNRG retail family and based in Memphis, near Orgill’s headquarters.
Germantown Hardware serves as a living retail lab for Orgill, and many of its innovations will be on display in the 16,000 sq. ft. concept store on show floor. Last year, John Sieggreen, CNRG president and executive vice president of retail at Orgill, explained Germantown Hardware’s value as a showpiece and retail laboratory.
“We had always thought that it would be ideal to have a CNRG location in the Memphis area, and Germantown Hardware offered us this opportunity,” said Sieggreen. “The store had a great reputation with local customers and was a staple of the local community and being in close proximity to Orgill’s headquarters and our concept center, it allows us much better access to the site. This also makes it easier for us to use it as a showcase for when we want to illustrate our range of programs and services to visitors.”
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Elsewhere on the floor, Orgill will be featuring Smart Starts, impulse products and the distributor’s Exclusively Orgill collection of private label brands. And in the Orgill Services area and the Learning Center, dealers can attend any of about 30 workshops that tie the concept store and other product initiatives to lessons learned and best practices.