On the heels of its recent merger with AmericasMart in Atlanta, International Market Centers has announced a new executive leadership team and a preview of its long-range plans for its furnishings, home décor, gift and apparel Markets and continued capital investment.

Boasting more than 150 years of collective experience in the gift, home furnishings and apparel industries, IMC’s new executive team includes: 

• Greg Avitabile, Executive Vice President, Operations
• Dorothy Belshaw, Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer
• Scott Eckman, Executive Vice President, President of Furniture and Home Décor Leasing
• Bill Lacey, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
• JoAnn Miller Marshall, Executive Vice President, President of Tradeshow Leasing
• Carrie Messina, Senior Vice President, Human Resources
• Dave Savula, Executive Vice President, President of Gift and Apparel Leasing

Working from offices in Las Vegas, High Point, North Carolina and Atlanta, IMC will function as one company with one mission, implementing best practices across the organization and leveraging expertise and customer relationships to not only support corporate goals but also improve the customer experience.

“This thoughtful, thorough and strategic corporate structure positions our exceptional leadership and their teams to have maximum impact on the business and drive enhanced value to our customers,” said Bob Maricich, CEO of IMC, which is known as the world’s largest owner and operator of premier showroom space for the furnishings, home décor, gift and apparel industries.

He continued, “We remain committed to continued investment, customer focus and sustained growth across all of our properties and Markets. We have a proven record of making significant investments in our Markets and this sets the stage to amplify our commitment to providing the most effective, efficient and compelling B2B platform for both our buyers and our tenants.”

With IMC as its corporate brand and parent company, all three venues and the individual Markets will retain their own identities, branding and unique features, according to IMC officials, while permanent showroom leasing responsibilities will be industry-based and market-wide for furniture and home décor. 

Ensuring its customers are able to maximize results and achieve national distribution, IMC will extend its current centralized “key account” management structure for tenants who participate in both High Point and Las Vegas to now include tenants who also participate in Atlanta. 

Meanwhile, gift and apparel leasing will continue to be managed by venue in both Atlanta and Las Vegas.

In addition, trade show leasing will apply expertise and expanded resources to grow existing temporary presentations in Atlanta, High Point and Las Vegas, and IMC’s temporary exhibit sales teams will be campus-specific, better enabling existing staff to maintain each Market’s unique personality and differentiating features.

Trade show leasing will also identify opportunities to maximize occupancy at the new Expo at World Market Center Las Vegas, set to break ground in January and scheduled to open in July 2020. 

Totaling more than 300,000 gross square feet and able to accommodate more than 1,000 temporary exhibitors during major gift and home Markets, the new facility will be built for optimal trade show presentation and will be contiguous to Las Vegas Market’s buildings.  

Marketing will be a centralized function enhancing the end-to-end customer experience, driving increased buyer acquisition across all Markets, and developing digital tools and services to improve the at Market experience for buyers and tenants.

Beyond these customer-facing strategies, IMC will centralize and streamline Accounting and Lease Administration to create efficiencies for customers, and Information Technology will roll out upgraded and state-of-the-art systems and business applications to help provide seamless vendor support. 

This significant upgrade is part of an extensive and on-going strategic IT evaluation to create best-in-class systems and infrastructure to enable IMC to scale and extend capabilities beyond the existing portfolio. 

“We know our success is in direct correlation with the success of our tenants and the satisfaction of the buyers, and we remain committed to creating and hosting Markets that continually improve and evolve to serve their needs,” Maricich said.

In tandem with organizational improvements, IMC is also conducting a long-range planning process to identify initiatives to drive IMC’s next stage of growth and development. 

High level initiatives include leveraging national reach of the combined organization to accelerate buyer acquisition in all Markets, expanding product offerings in relevant new verticals and investing significant capital in public space improvements at all locations in addition to construction of the new Expo Center on the Las Vegas campus.

“The planning process, which should be completed by year-end, incorporates quantitative and qualitative third-party research of our customers and our customers’ customers to identify their needs and develop markets and tools to enrich their experience and drive enhanced value,” said Maricich. 

He added, “IMC remains committed to sustained growth and enrichment of the business and our customers can expect continued capital re-investment across all three campuses.”

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