Merchandise World at Farnborough International Exhibition Centre on 12th September 2018 saw major distributors arrive from across the UK & Ireland. Collectively the 400 promotional merchandise distributor buyers in the hall had a market spend in excess of £360m, which represented over one third of the entire UK £1billion market spend. On average, every invited visitor that an exhibitor spent time with had a potential spend approaching £1m!
To ensure the quality of visitors, a strict visitor policy was enforced to ensure that only quality professional distributors were allowed admittance to meet with the exhibitors.
The brand-new show hall, which is now one of the most prestigious venues in the UK, was buzzing from start to finish as 131 exhibitors from the UK, Europe and USA took full advantage of meeting with the high-quality visitors. All visitors and exhibitors enjoyed the free breakfast, free lunch and day time refreshments, a free massage was also available, and the free pick’n mix was as big a hit as ever!
There were 25 suppliers at Merchandise World for the first time as well as 100+ leading established trade suppliers.
Merchandise World had clearly established itself as the UK’s leading promotional merchandise trade exhibition. The first show took place in Stoneleigh in 2017, then at Silverstone in January this year and now another successful event in Farnborough International has been delivered. The show’s success is founded on the quality of visitors that are invited and attended in impressive numbers. Merchandise World provides the perfect environment for great relationships to be made or reinforced and creates a great opportunity for everyone to do more business together.
The evening before the event saw over 250 industry figures meeting at the Merchandise World Networking Evening, where they enjoyed a Spanish guitar performance by Duo and a free hot buffet meal, whilst meeting new people and renewing current friendships.
If you missed this one, Merchandise World is back in Stoneleigh, near Coventry in the Midlands in January 2019. Distributor registrations are now open on www.merchandiseworld.co.uk, and you can call us today to exhibit on: 0844 504 5006 (International calls: +44 1252 701034) or email: info@merchandiseworld.co.uk.
PS: Over 165 stands are already sold for Stoneleigh in January where over 1000 quality visitors are confidently expected to attend, so be quick if you want a prime location in the hall!
What the Exhibitors and Visitors said:
Amy Frewer | United Brands: “Fantastic show, amazingly organised and such a pleasure to see all the familiar faces of the lovely customers and suppliers. Same time and place next year please!”
Mick Humphries | TC Group: “Many thanks for a brilliant Merchandise World at Farnborough, I felt that with the long summer I had lost touch with some key suppliers so this was a brilliant opportunity to reconnect in a fantastic environment, it also disproved the myth that there are no new products at this time of year, there was plenty to see, enough to give us opportunities to present to clients for the remainder of the year. As usual the hospitality and atmosphere were perfect.”
Taylor Morean | Strideline: “Thank you so much for inviting us to Merchandise World. We walked away with 80 leads and compared to most of our shows back in the US the quality of leads was much higher. With the built-in networking events we were able to meet great distributors, suppliers, and industry insiders all in just a short time. Would highly recommend for anyone looking to jump into the UK market. Frankly it’s a must do.”
Colin Gray | Rossi Ice Cream: “Thank you for the first-class support from booking, planning and set-up of the Merchandise World Exhibition at Farnborough. The quality of the show and hospitality to exhibitors and visitors was excellent with behind the scenes organisation of all aspects, second to none. It was a pleasure to personally speak with so many trade visitors to the event with the opportunity to display and promote our unique branded tubs of ice cream, and successfully raise awareness of our product. Having only been members for a short while, the expert advice and the exhibitions are giving us a platform to solely work with distributors. As Merchandise World say; “The show is about quality not quantity” and I couldn’t agree more. We have already booked for the show in January 2019 at Stoneleigh. Thank you to all the team.”
Joy Schoelink | Tacx: “Congratulations to the Sourcing team, once again a job well done! I liked the new location, logistically very good for EU suppliers. September shows are always slightly more challenging but there were plenty of good quality visitors. I am a big fan of the MW diary, I find it really easy to pre-book appointments. The MW shows have definitely helped us to link up with the UK market. Thank you for your service.”
About Merchandise World
Merchandise World is now clearly established as the UK’s leading promotional merchandise trade exhibition and the place for the industry to come together in January and September each year. This industry leading event is a unique concept which combines a traditional exhibition, a networking event and optional appointments.
All sales & administration teams, management and directors from professional distributor companies from across the UK & Ireland are invited. Our invited visitors can choose to informally see the latest and hottest products from the industry’s top suppliers in a traditional exhibition format or hold business review or planning meetings by appointment with exhibitors. There is no limit on the number of company personnel able to attend from any invited distributor company, and they do not have to be members of BPMA, Purple Club or Sourcing City.
The entire UK & Ireland promotional merchandise market spend is in excess of £1Billion, and Merchandise World has tremendous support from the industry with over 1000 professional distributors having attended previous individual events.
We look forward to you coming to the next Merchandise World which is the perfect time for professional distributors to find new suppliers, reinforce relationships with existing suppliers, to see new products, to be reminded of top sellers, to discuss trading plans and to discover new opportunities.
Next Events
Merchandise World: Wednesday 30th and Thursday 31st Jan 2019 at NAEC Stoneleigh, Warwickshire, CV8 2LG
Distributors: Please click here to register.
Merchandise World: Wednesday 11th September 2019 – Venue to be confirmed
Suppliers: If you haven’t signed up for both/either of above yet, just give Liz, Andrea or Ella a call on 0844 504 5006 or email: info@merchandiseworld.co.uk
For more information please visit: www.merchandiseworld.co.uk
Published on: September 20th, 2018
