LONDON — Despite soaring raw material costs, a sluggish British economy and penny-wise consumers, the mood among British trade show organizers is surprisingly upbeat.
Consumer confidence has hit its lowest levels since the 2009 recession, driven by new government spending cuts, inflation and rising taxes. The value-added tax on luxury goods and services has recently increased to 20 percent from 17.5 percent, but many retailers are absorbing the extra costs in order to remain competitive.
That said, show attendance has been buoyant.
“We were up 22 percent on visitors,” said Sarah Lawrence, event director of Pure London and Pure Spirit, held in West London and showcasing contemporary and younger streetwear brands, respectively. “The average spend per buyer was 90,000 pounds [or $148,500], and the event generated 136 million pounds [$224.4 million] in trade. That’s big. Retailers may be cutting advertising, but they still need product for their windows.”
Related Articles
Neil Gaisford, portfolio director at Clarion Events, which organizes retail shows Pulse and Top Drawer, said, “We had a strong start to the year with record buyer attendance at Top Drawer Spring in January. In 2011, we expect to grow buyer attendance again at all our shows.”
You May Also Like
Textile Forum, a premium fabric show, also reported solid attendance.
“We’re doing extraordinarily well,” said managing director Linda Laderman. “There’s no sign of a slowdown in terms of visitor numbers. In fact, this show and the October edition recorded the highest visitor numbers since its inception in 2002. Obviously it is difficult, but the luxury sector is faring better than the middle market, and that’s where many of our exhibitors focus.”
Laderman said Textile Forum had also benefited from its central London location, adding that, “We found that with travel budgets tight, U.K. buyers are happy to have a fabric show on their doorstep.”
Other shows had been bolstered by outside events. Bridal trade fair The British Bridal Exhibition at Harrogate, for example, received a boost from the royal nuptials last month.
“The interest from the press has fueled the bridal market,” said organizer Wendy Adams. “We’ve seen lots of new bridal retailers enter the arena. One exhibitor reported a 71 percent leap in sales at our March show. Numbers were still up. A few buyers came for one day instead of three, but attendance was high, especially from international visitors.”
The main challenge at British shows is consumer confidence.
“That’s the root of the problem,” said Carole Hunter, chief executive of club wear show Londonedge. “Government warnings of ‘worse to come’ do nothing to encourage spending. Add this to limited bank lending and high credit card interest rates, and retail is inevitably going to struggle. The recent good weather has helped, though.”
The rise in VAT is another factor. Many retailers have opted to absorb costs rather than pass them on to price-sensitive consumers, which has put pressure on buyers to get the right product mix at the right price, and has also prompted many to stick to established brands rather than risk buying from start-ups.
According to Hunter, many exhibitors have ridden out the storm by being adaptable to buyer requirements. “There have been smaller orders but more of them,” she said.
Adams added that in bridal, labels were also offering consumers more options for shorter-term orders. Shows, for their part, are working hard to make the events more compelling for attendees, with digital forums, seminars and entertainment.
London Fashion Week Exhibition launched a magazine for attendees, called The Great Exhibition, that previewed collections by designers. It also had a strong social media arm, offering daily Facebook slide shows of collections, Twitter feeds featuring brand Web sites and regular updates.
The BBE hosted seminars for retailers with the National Skills Academy, including a guide to using social networking and retail. Pure introduced a networking cocktail party for retailers and also offered free buses between its two sister show locations.
To maintain an interesting product mix, many have launched sections for young design talent.
London Fashion Week has started providing a space for NewGen designers. NewGen is a British Fashion Council-supported initiative that gives financial grants to emerging talent. This season, it added a section for emerging designers in collaboration with Elle Magazine. It also had a dedicated section for London millinery talent, curated by Stephen Jones.
Stitch London launched an exhibition space sponsored by Première Vision called The Future of Menswear, showcasing designers from Central Saint Martins and Pure London hosted fashion shows of graduate talent in collaboration with Drapers Magazine.