Top Drawer, the UK's premier design-led buying event, opened its doors for the A/W season yesterday. Welcoming buyers and store owners to embrace the 'whirlwind of change' that is the current retail climate. This edition showcases more than 500 exhibiting brands across the most in-demand lifestyle sectors.
The show's flagship sectors–Home, Gift, Greetings & Stationery, Play, Craft, Fashion, Food Emporium and Wellbeing–are complimented by Launchpad, a presentation of emerging brands from across all sectors who are new to the market.
Event Director, David Westbrooke said: "Top Drawer has a long, proud legacy of presenting store owners and buyers with products that will set their offering apart from the rest, and resonate with their customers."
Posted: 9 September 2024
The Gift Fair is thrilled to launch its Future Star Award. This award celebrates newcomers with exceptional potential to the UK Gift industry.
This award will provide a launchpad for talented entrepreneurs to show off their wonderful products in way they might not otherwise have the opportunity to.
This year, we were spoilt for choice so two wonderful companies have been selected, it was just too hard to pick one! The Gift Fair Future Star awards go to Cheeky Legends www.arrthi.com for their colourful and cheeky greetings cards and Little Roglets www.littleroglets.com for their beautifully painted animal collection.
Cheeky Legends was created by Arrthi Little, a cartoonist based in Hampshire creating entertaining characters in her signature style 'Cute, Chubby, Cheeky'.
Posted: 4 September 2024
The Gift Fair is an online gift tradeshow, set to take place from January 8th- February 28th, 2025.
Organised by Fabian Santoro and his team, this exciting platform hosts trade shows that work around you not the other way around. The platform is not like anything you've seen before – it's not a website, directory or meeting scheduler. Every aspect is designed to make trade shows faster, cheaper, easier and better. You can speak to real people in real time via instant messaging, video chat, exchange business cards and much more.
You can find established brands like Professor Puzzle, LifeCharms and Swing Cards as well as the hottest newcomers like Cosmic Cuties and BangoBerry.
Posted: 2 September 2024
Autumn Fair, retail's leading seasonal showcase for Home, Gift and Fashion, opened today and saw thousands of buyers walking the aisles looking to discover the latest products and hidden gems for their stores.
The four-day show is the key seasonal buying event for many independent businesses across the UK to refresh their store and stock up shelves in time for the festive period, and reports from a busy first day indicate positivity, plenty of order writing, and highlighted the importance of seeing products and people in person.
A huge variety of big name retailers, department stores, garden centres, activity centres and independent retailers attended including Tesco, Poundland, Elphicks, Blue Diamond, NHS, Willows Activity Far, Willowbrook Garden Centre, Blue Tiger, Leonards Hardware and Island jewellers.
Posted: 2 September 2024
This Sunday, the NEC Birmingham will come alive with the return of Autumn Fair, the UK's largest seasonal showcase for Home, Gift & Fashion. Running from 1st to 4th September 2024, this year's event promises to be a hub of inspiration and opportunity, with over 800 suppliers presenting more than half a million products. With 30 per cent of brands exhibiting exclusively at Autumn Fair, it's the ultimate destination for retailers looking to discover the latest trends and stock their shelves ahead of the festive season.
Posted: 29 August 2024
After a successful transition phase, the consumer goods trade fairs Christmasworld and Creativeworld have a new show director. On 1st August 2024, Stefan Schopp took over from Eva Olbrich, who commenced her well-deserved retirement at the end of July. With the Conzoom Circle network, Messe Frankfurt links the most important international platforms for the global consumer goods and retail industry and bundles industry knowledge and expertise.
Posted: 22 August 2024
The Toy Fair, which will celebrate its 71st show in January 2025, has again welcomed an extremely high returnee booking rate for next year's event with the entire ground floor and newly branded Gold Zone (formerly Greenhouse) already sold out. With more than six months still to go, the show has also received a high level of new applications and therefore any companies still considering booking exhibition space at the 2025 show are encouraged to apply now.
Posted: 1 August 2024
The Creative Craft Show will return to Farnborough International for a third year running, with brand new sister show, The Stitching Show. The show will run from Friday 30th August to Sunday 1st September 2024. This show is a haven for knitting, cross stitch, mixed media, scrapbooking, paper crafting, jewellery, dressmaking and stitching enthusiasts alike, offering all the very latest supplies, ideas, and innovations in the craft and hobby world.
Posted: 25 July 2024
Koelnmesse GmbH today announced that it will be extending its contract with Oliver Frese, which currently runs until the end of 2024, by a further five years to 31 December 2029. Frese has been the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Koelnmesse since 2020. After holding management positions at companies such as Deutsche Telekom and the energy group EnBW and spending several years on the board of Deutsche Messe AG, Oliver Frese, who holds a social sciences degree, was appointed to the Management Board of Koelnmesse GmbH in 2020.
Posted: 23 July 2024
The garden retail industry's most anticipated event, Glee, is poised to mark a monumental milestone as it celebrates its 50th anniversary this September (10th – 12th, NEC Birmingham).
However, this year, Glee not only celebrates half a century at the pinnacle of garden retail but also ushers in a new era with its return to a September dateline, based on comprehensive industry feedback.
Glee has long been a beacon for the garden retail sector, fostering growth and innovation. This year's shift to a September date is a direct response to extensive consultations with industry stakeholders, ranging from independent retailers to large-scale suppliers. The feedback highlighted the need for a timing that aligns more closely with the industry's evolving buying cycles and seasonal preparations.
Posted: 22 July 2024
