IMC Announces New Executive Leadership Team Following Atlanta Acquisition; Previews Long Range Plans for Markets and Continued Capital Investment

November 6, 2018 (HIGH POINT, NC) – Following its recently concluded merger with AmericasMart, International Market Centers has announced a new executive leadership team with over 150 years of collective experience in the gift, home furnishings, and apparel industries: Greg Avitabile, EVP, Operations; Dorothy Belshaw, EVP, Chief Marketing and Digital Officer; Scott Eckman, EVP, Furniture and Home Décor Leasing; Bill Lacey, EVP and CFO; JoAnn Miller Marshall, EVP, Tradeshow Leasing; Carrie Messina, EVP, Human Resources; and Dave Savula, EVP, Gift and Apparel Leasing.

Working from offices in Las Vegas, High Point and Atlanta, IMC will function as one company with one mission, implementing best practices across the organization and leveraging expertise and customer relationships to support corporate goals and 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 International Market Centers. “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 unique identities, branding and differentiating features.

Permanent showroom leasing responsibilities will be industry-based and market-wide for furniture and home décor. Ensuring that customers can 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. Gift and apparel leasing will continue to be managed by venue in Atlanta and Las Vegas.

Tradeshow leasing will apply expertise and expanded resources to grow existing temporary presentations in Atlanta, High Point and Las Vegas. IMC’s temporary exhibit sales teams will be campus-specific, better enabling existing staff to maintain the unique personality and differentiating features of each Market. Tradeshow leasing will also identify opportunities to maximize occupancy at the new Expo at World Market Center Las Vegas which will break ground in January and is scheduled to open in July 2020. The new state-of-the-art facility will be purpose built for optimal tradeshow presentation and will be contiguous to Las Vegas Market’s buildings. Totaling more than 300,000 gross square feet, the new venue will accommodate more than 1,000 temporary exhibitors during major gift and home Markets.

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,” said Maricich.

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

ABOUT INTERNATIONAL MARKET CENTERS

IMC, which Blackstone and Fireside Investments acquired in 2017, is the world’s largest owner and operator of premier showroom space for the furnishings, home decor and gift industries, with 20 million square feet of world-class exhibition space in High Point, NC, Las Vegas, NV, and Atlanta, GA, catering to over 8,500 exhibitors and lines. The Company’s mission is to build and operate an innovative, sustainable, profitable and scalable platform for the furnishings, home decor and gift industries. For more information please visit www.imcenters.com.

Media Contact:

Karen Olson, International Market Center

+1-336- 821-1502

kolson@imcenters.com

Cathy Steel

+1-203-340-9251

cathysteel@cathysteelassociates.com