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Monday February 4 2019 THE NATIONAL MOTORCYCLE MUSEUM, BIRMINGHAM


talking trade


‘Exhibitions should be there to fulfil a need’ Cookshop retailer Keith Crowther shares his thoughts on trade shows


that we may have seen before, at Spring Fair and Ambiente? But it’s always useful to see trends and ideas


for Christmas, and Eddingtons was one of the few exhibitors with ‘festive’ products on show. And it was helpful to be reminded that Meyer will be launching the Joe Wicks brand very soon, so watch out for that one hitting the shelves. Plus, I look forward to stocking Villaggio Verde olive wood products, new lines from Elia and maybe even Sorbo cleaning products: a range in a category that’s new to us.


W


ell, that’s the end of the trade show season for a while – for one thing our feet will feel the


benefit. The show calendar seems endless nowadays, with Harrogate Christmas & Giſt and Top Drawer [both held in January] being my first stops. I think they are a good indication of how things might pan out for the year. My first impression of both exhibitions was that they were quieter than usual, and this continued right through the season. Let’s hope my favourite show – July’s Home & Gift Buyers’ Festival at Harrogate - lives up to expectations. A glass of Pimm’s sitting on the lawn after a hard day’s buying sounds just perfect. As the number of us ‘indies’ continues to


reduce (I refuse to use the word ‘decline’) and with the number of department stores shrinking, inevitably there will be less people available to attend these events. Funnily enough, you don’t get many managers of Costa Coffee and Starbucks attending housewares shows! Exclusively Housewares, held in London in


June, is not a show I visit every year. Normally every other year will suffice. But this time round I travelled to the big city from ‘up north’. There were lots of companies that were new to me and a few old favourites who, like me, maybe dip in and out of attending. I think exhibitions should be there to fulfil a


need, rather than always being ‘must attend’ events. It’s great to meet up with old acquaintances and meet other retailers; we do like a good moan now and again, don’t we? It’s good to catch up with people moving between companies too, and I wish them all the best in their new roles. There were not as many new products on


display at Exclusively as I imagined. I think new product development, with launches throughout the year, is a thing of the past. So perhaps this show is a reminder of the items


July/August 2018


Hopefully the new products will help distinguish us independent retailers from the rest. We need to offer something that’s different, and if that means going out and sourcing that fresh range, then that’s what we need to do. Otherwise, we will not thrive as a sector. The goings-on in the high


street this year, with store closures by M&S as well as House of Fraser and the other well-documented administrations, have left the high street feeling weakened. Yes, it might be down - but it’s not out. There will be massive challenges ahead but I also feel there will be opportunities for us all.


I sometimes wish that


they could announce all the bad news at once, so we could avoid this constant drip-drip of switching on the TV to hear [BBC newsreader]


HousewaresLive.net • twitter.com/Housewaresnews housewareslive.net | 35


Huw Edwards say ‘another bad day on the high street’ (and sorry I couldn’t write that with his Welsh accent and curled up lip!). Another advantage of attending trade shows is that although you may think that when it’s quiet, it’s only you that’s affected, you realise that retailers up and down the country - from Cornwall to Scotland - are having a tough time as well. This was all the more noticeable during a


recent visit to my family in Northampton, which highlighted the changes (note that I’m still not using the word ‘decline’) on the high street there. Northampton’s M&S branch closes in August.


However, I recently read in a newspaper that a new 17,500sq ft store had opened in that town’s centre. ‘Wow!’ I thought. ‘That’s good: a new business.’ You might be surprised to learn that it’s the Salvation Army: a worthy and noble organisation that I always support. But a store that size? Incidentally, it’s on the site of the old Primark store, which in turn took over the space from House of Fraser! More of that to come, I suspect.


W


e’re all aware that the Golden Quarter is just around the corner, when all those new products that


we ordered months ago turn up. There will be groans that festive trading starts earlier. Well, yes, it might do. But our customers do seem to like buying their Christmas cards and calendars in August…


• Keith Crowther is the owner of La Cookshop at Blagdon in Northumberland


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