by Registrations were down 1% from October, but there were some bright spots including events and new showrooms that opened this market
HIGH POINT – Registrations for the April High Point Market were down 1% from last October, according to information released to members of the High Point Market Authority board on Wednesday.
The figure represents the overall number of accounts at market compared with last fall, a relatively flat number given some of the challenges impacting the economy ranging from gas prices to low foot traffic at retail.
“We can’t ignore the fact that fuel prices are rising, airfares are elevated and uncertainty hangs over the broader economy,” said Tammy Covington, president and chief executive officer of the High Point Market Authority.
For some exhibitors, the traffic may have felt lighter, particularly as some said they believed many independent and smaller accounts skipped market entirely. Meanwhile, larger accounts such as Havertys were here with large buying teams.
Yet there were 1,200 new companies that registered overall, the HPMA said, of individual retailers, design firms and home staging companies. And while the number of large retailers here in town was down 4% from October, the HPMA noted that international attendance was up about 1% from October.
New buyer registrations were down slightly, noted Ashley Grigg, HPMA vice president strategic growth and partnerships.
“It was a little less than last time, but we are also thinking, “who is starting a business right now?”
Other highlights from the meeting were as follows:
+ Covington noted that there were a few new buildings opened this market for various exhibitors including Roberta Schilling, Armen Living and Amadi Collective
“These are all fantastic new spaces here in High Point,” said Covington, noting that the market featured some 197 new exhibitors leasing space overall. “Which we feel really good about… .It was a good market for our team and a lot of folks that we talked to around town. We feel good about where we are and are planning for October and are excited to see what the rest of this year brings.”
+ Terry Venable, senior vice president, operations and finance at the HPMA, said that both concert events — The Smithereens on Saturday night and Kool & the Gang on Sunday — were successful.
“We were prepared for a large crowd and we were not disappointed,” he said, particularly of the Sunday night event. “We ended up with just over 3,000 market guests for the concert. It was an evening of energetic music, classic hits and food and beverages. There also were two sponsor VIP areas including one with exhibitor Schonbek and the other with Bernhardt. They were able to bring in a lot of their customers and their staff and really had a great time hosting their clients in that space.”
+ Venable also provided an update for its space at 115 N. Hamilton, which is undergoing construction and expected to be completed in early 2027. He said that the market authority is in the design phase for the upfit of the third floor where it will occupy about 20,000 square feet of space. He noted that the plan is to immediately use some of that space for events and education, including at the April 2027 market. However, it does not plan to move its offices into the new space until after the April 2027 market.
“We don’t have the band width to make a move like that in March,” he said. “We will put the priority on the public spaces, the hospitality and the education spaces and then we will worry about our offices after market.”
+ Finally, Venable noted that the market authority made minor changes to its transportation system by shifting some funding away from less used hotel shuttle routes to the Go Anywhere fleet.
“It operates much like Uber or Lyft, and the calls for that service continue to increase,” he said. “So we were able to increase that fleet by a little over 10% for this market to keep those wait times very reasonable and be able to meet the increasing demand. It was not a big shift, but certainly things went well.”
