Housewares Business-to-business magazine for housewares retailers and their suppliers
Exhibition organiser i2i Events Group has “placed significant strategic investment” in Autumn Fair International 2012 to attract more buyers, keep them at the show for longer and provide a strong return for exhibitors.
The show has been expanded, with more exhibitors (1,600 compared with 1,500 in 2011) and more initiatives, seminars, interactive demos and workshops.
Some 34,000 retail buyers from around 80 countries are forecast to attend at the event, held at the NEC in Birmingham from September 2-5. They will have the opportunity to check out 60,000 new products spread over five halls.
Kitchen, Dining & Housewares are located in Hall 2; while Contemporary Gift & Home are Hall 3, along with The Summerhouse. The other categories are: Volume Gift & Home (Hall 1); Children’s Gifts, Toys & Gadgets (Hall 5); Home Interiors & Furniture (Hall 3); Greetings & Stationery (Hall 4); Hobby, Arts & Craft (Hall 5); Body, Bath & Home Fragrance (Halls 3 and 5); Fashion Jewellery & Accessories (Hall 4) and Gifts (Hall 5).
New initiatives for 2012 include The Kitchen Club in Hall 2 (see separate story), while a series of seminars will include an interview with award-winning retailer Oliver Tress, founder/owner of Oliver Bonas. Liberty’s learning & development manager Jane Leadbetter will offer advice on achieving excellent customer service; visual merchandiser Janine Tanner of Robert Dyas will provide basic tips to improve your visual merchandising and increase sales; and TV presenter Anthea Turner will demonstrate why now is the perfect time to ‘get Britain crafting’.
Key retailers that have already registered to attend include Heal’s, Selfridges, House of Fraser, Fenwick, John Lewis, Debenhams, TK Maxx, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Tesco, Waitrose, Amazon, Betterware and Steamer Trading Cookshop.
Managing director Louise Young said: “Everyone at i2i Events Group is looking forward to another great edition of Autumn Fair International. We have a lot of new initiatives lined up and we’re committed to making this a truly inspirational event for the industry.”
