by New buying company attendance up 13.8%, number of international buyers up 4%
HIGH POINT – Marking what High Point Market Authority officials described as the strongest spring market since Covid, attendance at the April market is estimated to be up 1% from last April, according to information presented at the HPMA’s board meeting Wednesday.
“We feel really good about where we are going there. We are starting to see that consistency between spring and fall markets,” said Tammy Covington Nagem, president and chief executive officer of the High Point Market Authority, noting that typically markets are compared spring over spring and fall over fall.
“And then after Covid we weren’t sure what to compare any more,” she added, noting that the numbers are down 2% from the fall market. “But it looks like we are starting to see that consistency again.”
The estimates are based on preregisrations and registrations at market through Tuesday. Officials said the number of those registrations through the same period of market was the highest since the start of Covid in 2020.
Based on those numbers, the number of larger retailers attending market is up 2% from the spring, and the number of new buying companies is up 13.8% from last fall, representing some 1,600 accounts. While the new buying company estimate was not immediately available from April 2023, officials said they believed it is a similar comparison to April 2023.
International attendance is estimated to be up 4% from last April, with the highest attendance from Canada, Mexico and Central America and the Caribbean and the Middle East.
In addition to having plenty of new product to see, many buyers in town participated in educational seminars and presentations as well as entertainment. This included concerts from Nik West which drew about 1,000 attendees and the Goo Goo Dolls, which drew between 3,500 and 4,000, reaching capacity for the first time since pre-pandemic with a market concert from North Carolina native Chris Daughtry in 2014.
“I think it just shows that we are consistently growing back from Covid,” Covington Nagem told Home News Now of the overall attendance and quality of the market and its offerings. “I think we are all figuring out what that looks like. But the most encouraging part is to look at some of those segments like international, like new buyers and the Top 300 (retailers). We are seeing those grow.”
She added that the market also is staying consistent in the 60/40 split attendance wise from stocking and nonstocking buyers.
“We do still see that strong attendance from designers, so we feel good about where we are,” she added. “It doesn’t mean that there is not work to be done to go out and talk to folks about the importance of being in High Point, but we do feel like we are seeing where people are needing home furnishings products, and we are at the top of the list of where they find that.”
