November 2015

Are there signs of maturity in the pellet industry? Has the wild child of the hearth industry finally grown up, settled down and become stable and (somewhat) predictable?

This issue marks the 10th year of the Merchandising Excellence Awards, created to recognize those manufacturers who are setting a high bar with their visual merchandising.

Items of interest to members of the hearth, barbecue, and patio industries.

In early October, Hearth & Home faxed a survey to 2,500 specialty retailers of hearth, barbecue and patio products, asking them to compare September 2015 sales to September 2014. The accompanying charts and selected comments are from the 217 useable returns.

In a promotion designed to gain exposure for both the Toyota Tundra and Napoleon grills, two special Tundra tailgating vehicles were created this year. One visited events in eastern Canada, the other worked the western section of the country. It began in April and runs through the end of the year.