More visitors to London

Taking both together, the DIY & Garden Show and Totally Tools, which were held at the same time (14 – 16 January) on London’s Earls Court 2 exhibition area, attracted 17.5 per cent more visitors than last year’s events. The increase was evenly spread over all three days. The final figure of 3 042 registered visitors is still to be analysed to see which sectors recorded the greatest amount of growth. At any rate, it was a lively fair that has removed any doubts concerning the state of the market in the United Kingdom. The total of 214 exhibitors included 87 newcomers to the London event, 25 of them from abroad (USA, Germany, France, Ireland, Canada, Netherlands, Australia, Austria, Sweden, Italy, Poland and India). This year again saw over 200 products submitted to the new product zone, where for the first time product demonstrations were held throughout the show. When it came to the awards for the best new products, the honours were equally shared by large and small firms. Gold went to Parcel Safe, Kamasa, Plasplugs, Cuprinol and Kalon.As exhibition director James Murray said, “We felt it was important to maintain the show’s balance, whilst freshening up the content with some new features. Plus a lot of hard work has gone on behind the scenes to build on and establish new partnerships with the industry’s key organisations – their support has clearly made a huge difference.”The European DIY Retail Association (EDRA) used the fair as a platform for a meeting of members. The umbrella organisation is making every effort to establish a European-wide consensus on how the DIY industry is measured and assessed. As general secretary John Herbert explained, this was the first time he had managed to get representatives from B&Q, Focus, Homebase and Travis Perkins together at the same table.This wasn’t the first time that EDRA had used the London DIY Show for one of its meetings, and it is already planning ahead for next year, when the show will be staged at Earl’s Court 2 once more, this time from 13 – 15 January.
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