Show organiser i2i Events Group unveils raft of new developments for the UK’s leading retail trade exhibition as 3000 exhibitors get set to launch 300,000 new products
Spring Fair, the UK’s leading gift and home exhibition, organised by i2i Events Group, will get 2016 trading off to a flying start with a raft of new developments and hundreds of thousands of new product launches.
The show will open its doors on February 7 – 11 at The NEC, Birmingham, where it is co-located with Jewellery & Watch Birmingham, the UK’s biggest specialised jewellery exhibition. Volume Halls will open one day early on Saturday February 6.
Some 3,000 of the best British and international suppliers, including hundreds that are new to Spring Fair for 2016, will present up to 300,000 new products at the show across 14 categories:
Body & Bath, Children’s Gifts, Toys & Gadgets, Contemporary Gift, Christmas Gifts, Floral & Seasonal Decorations, Fashion Jewellery, Accessories & Luggage, Volume Gift & Home, Greetings & Gift, Home, Gift, Retail Solutions, The Summerhouse, Kitchen, Dining & Housewares, Licensed Gifts and The Party Show.
The wealth of new design talent and innovative companies that have chosen to exhibit at Spring Fair for the first time in 2016 include: Look at Image Plus, Hearth & Heritage, Olive & Belle, Adrian Higgins, The Little Bells, Cream Cornwall, Fayre Maiden, Mellow Duck, Lady Primrose, Burhouse Beads, The Sunday Girl, Bojje, Greenkey Garden & Home, to name just a few.
As the largest retail event taking place in the UK buying calendar, each sector of Spring Fair forms a specialised show within a show, whilst also offering the best cross-over buying opportunities available to the UK retail trade.
Tens of thousands of buyers from around the UK and the world attend the show, including the majority of the top retail brands. 44 per cent of visitors do not attend any other trade event and 75 per cent of all visitors place orders with suppliers as a result of their attendance at Spring Fair.
Not only is Spring Fair the prime new product sourcing opportunity for retailers, it also offers unrivalled networking opportunities, cutting-edge trend insights and business content, whilst serving as the ideal export hub for overseas traders.
Along with leading department stores, multiple retail chains supermarkets and independent gift retailers the exhibition offers the best new product sourcing opportunity for post offices, convenience stores and newsagents, garden centre gift shops, heritage sites and tourist attractions, interior designers and the many thousands of online retailers – large and small – who constitute the UK’s booming ecommerce sector.
To help serve the online community, this year sees the introduction of The Wish List at www.springfair.com, a 24/7, year-round product sourcing platform. The new Wish List functionality gives buyers the opportunity to save and print ‘shopping lists’ of their favourite items from a comprehensive database of Spring Fair exhibitors’ products.
The powerful search and select mechanism also provides great insight into trends as the hottest products rise through the ranks and make it onto more and more wish lists via thousands of unique users.
Monitoring trends throughout the year has also confirmed that licensing is still big news in the home and gift markets, with licensed products selling well across all major categories, from children’s gifts and greetings cards to tabletop and housewares. A dedicated Licensing section of the Spring Fair website helps bring this important aspect of gifting to the fore, with countless hot properties to choose from, including: Star Wars, The Great British Bake Off, Doctor Who, Katie Alice, Me to You and Minions.
Spring Fair Portfolio Director Nick Davison comments: “This is my first year at the helm of Spring Fair, having spent the past few years developing sister shows Autumn Fair and Glee, and I’m incredibly excited about the 2016 exhibition.
“Consultation with our customers revealed the need for certain modifications to the hall layout and access points to improve footfall, so we’ve implemented a raft of new changes to meet those requirements in 2016. I would like to thank everyone involved for their support of the show and helping to make our plans a reality, I am committed to delivering the best possible event for all our customers. We’re all now looking forward to a great show, where everyone who attends will see some fantastic new products from both their existing and new suppliers”.
The 2016 Show Floor
To ensure the exhibition is continually refreshed and updated to reflect the needs of both exhibitors and visitors, several sectors have been re-edited for 2016*.
These changes will incorporate an improved layout to encourage footfall to the Atrium side of the show via an express entrance in Hall 9, where the Season’s Club will also be located. The express entrance will help channel visitors to Halls 6, 7, 8 and 20 as soon as the show opens.
Linking walkways between Halls 4 and 8 and Halls 5 and 9 will further improve the flow of visitors around Spring Fair and help them make the most of the fantastic cross-over buying opportunities.
The Atrium will be an essential destination for visitors, who are sure to make a beeline for the exclusive Summerhouse showcase in Hall 8, Spring Fair’s unrivalled selection of Contemporary Gifts, Fashion Accessories in Hall 20, alongside an enticing presentation of Body & Bath products.
Also in Hall 6 will be the e-commerce Theatre, one of the most important educational hubs of the show. Strategically positioned around the e-commerce Theatre will be exhibitors in Retail Solutions, where store owners can take their pick from a range of essential services and solutions ranging from payment providers and Epos systems to website designers, logistics and shop-fitters.
The essential Kitchen, Dining & Housewares sector of the show in Hall 9 – formerly Table & Kitchen – will be adjacent to both the Contemporary Gift Halls 6 and 7 and The Summerhouse in Hall 8, creating a seamless cross-over buying environment for these complementary product categories. Hall 9 is also the location of the VIP Seasons Club
Fashion Accessories, Jewellery & Luggage will also be at this side of the show in Halls 19 and 20 –home to the popular Fashion Accessories Catwalk and Trends Showcase – while a massive presentation of Volume Home & Gift items will be on display in Halls 10, 11 and 12. The Volume Café in Hall 12, sponsored by Anand International, will provide a welcome rest and relaxation area for visitors in this part of the show.
Elsewhere at the Fair, an expanded Greetings & Gift sector will move to Hall 3, where the biggest and best names in the business will return to the show for 2016.
Greetings & Gift will be co-located with The Party Show in Hall 3, creating perfect synergy between these two related sectors and facilitating the visitor experience for specialist buyers. The Party Show will feature some of the biggest suppliers in the whole of Spring Fair, such as Premier Halloween and balloon giant Pioneer Europe/Qualatex.
Hall 3 will also be home to the New Product Showcase – a must-see hotbed of inspiration for visitors – and the Greetings Café, which provides a central networking hub and perfect opportunity for refreshment in the midst of a busy day shopping the show.
Moving into Hall 4 are some of the country’s best gift suppliers offering the most comprehensive new product selection available to the UK trade.
More general gifts can be found in the adjacent Hall 5, alongside Children’s Gifts, Toys & Gadgets. Here retailers can choose from a covetable array of traditional wooden toys, games, puzzles, plush, novelty items, top licensed products and anything else that might be given as a gift to a child.
The stunning Home sector of Spring Fair, which incorp
orates some of the most desirable home furnishings, textiles, artwork and accessories on the market, will return to the front of the show in Hall 1, where they will be adjacent to Christmas Gifts, Floral & Seasonal Decorations in Hall 2. Another Café is also located in Hall 2.
For more information and to get a free ticket go to the website:
* Hall finder
• Hall 1: Home
• Hall 2: Christmas Gifts, Floral and Seasonal Decorations; UKTI stand and seminar theatre; Café
• Hall 3: Gree
tings & Gift; The Party Show; The Party Show Stage; New Product Showcase
• Hall 4: Gift
• Hall 5: Gift; Children’s Gifts, Toys & Gadgets
• Hall 6: Contemporary Gift; Ecommerce Seminar Theatre; Retail Solutions
• Hall 7: Contemporary Gift
• Hall 8: The Summerhouse
• Hall 9: Kitchen, Dining & Housewares; Seasons Club
• Halls 10, 11 and 12: Volume Gift & Home; Volume
Bar
• Hall 19 & 20: Fashion Jewellery, Accessories & Luggage; Fashion Accessories Catwalk
• Halls 17 & 18: Jewellery & Watch Birmingham; Jewellery Catwalk and Café
Press contact Charlotte Cowell: charlotte.cowell@topright-group.com
Images top to bottom: Quail, Jasmine White, The Little Bells, Balvi, Ideawood, Port & Lemon, Carte Blanche (Me to You), Nether Wallop Trading, Alison Gardiner, Tosh, Bojje, Faye’s Studio, ITW, Riviera Maison, Aird Group, Villeroy & Boch, Cafflano
