Page 6 - HW May 2021

editorial
May 2021
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Group editor Steve Bohling steveb@mpm.nz
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Get your diary out...
DIARISE THIS DATE now: Wednesday 10 November.
That’s the culmination 6 months from now of this year’s Hardware Awards – the annual Gala Dinner at which our guests join us in celebrating the New Zealand DIY and home improvement channel’s highest performers.
Yes the Hardware Awards are back again for 2021 after a pleasing result last year.
After an on again, off again sort of year, the 2020 program came together uncomfortably close to the last minute.
Still, despite the best efforts of the pandemic, it was a real pleasure to meet and greet our guests in person, their enthusiasm for networking unabated.
With last year’s program still fresh in my mind, the 2021 Hardware Awards kick off this month, and you can find details of how to get involved on pages 6 & 7 of this magazine.
There are a few small changes designed to make entering simpler and easier but, rest assured, the judging and assessment will be no less rigorous this year.
Although we haven’t quite got intentions to participate signed off from all the key players, interest among retailers and merchants is keener than ever and I hope to be able to talk more about this in the next issue.
Back to the here and now.
Is there a product category that isn’t experiencing shortages in supply?
During the build-up to this issue, I’ve been hearing tales of not skulduggery as such, but certainly some of the inventive and unorthodox ways people are going about ascertaining suppliers’ stock levels and then trying to secure them. All of them.
I’ve also been hearing about the stresses the current shortages are causing both ends of our chosen industry.
Interesting in this respect to hear increasing numbers of companies faced with increasing costs saying some of them will certainly have to be passed on and potentially drive up end user pricing.
If I may, I’m going to simply reiterate what I said this time last year because, although the circumstances here have brightened somewhat, elsewhere they haven’t and that continues to colour our part of the world.
To paraphrase, try and be kind to each other, both up and down the chain. Be transparent in your dealings with each other. And do diarise that date...
Steve Bohling, editor steveb@mpm.nz
4 NZHJ | MAY 2021
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