P&P LIVE! 2017
A flashback in time T
he 2017 show will be the largest ever Printwear & Promotion LIVE! After several years of being hosted in Hall 12, recent expansion has meant the show has outgrown its 30,000sq m capacity and for 2017 has relocated into Hall 20. At the time of going to press this yearʼs record amount of stand space has been equalled and the show is well on the way to welcoming more exhibitors than ever before! Many exhibitors started out as fledgling companies when they first exhibited several decades ago and have since grown and developed along with the show. Result, Beechfield and Your Embroidery Services Ltd are all examples of this.
Growing up
Result first exhibited in 1995 and as managing director, David Sanders-Smith recalls: “It was a very heavy stand which all the Result team helped to assemble and dress. And at the end it all had to be taken down and loaded onto the Result truck. Fortunately the stand was not the big stand we have today.” To demonstrate just how much Result has grown during the last 20 years, when it first exhibited the brand had 14 garment styles and 26 headwear styles and at the time displayed every colour and size on stand. The company had no bespoke brochure until 2000, previously relying on distributors to advertise its range. Today the company has 180 Result jacket styles, 75 SPIRO sportswear styles, 100 Cap and Winter Essentials products and 12 safety footwear styles.
David adds: “Proving how circular clothing trends are, while much of our performance range evolved out of our original 36 styles, 10 garment styles still exist in the range unchanged from their original pattern specification.”
David credits Printwear & Promotion LIVE! with being instrumental in getting Result known as the first stock jacket brand. He adds: “In 1995 Result was still in the pioneering stages of the huge business that exists today. We were the only stand in 1995 offering jackets from stock. At recent shows there have been at least 20 doing the same, but it was nice to be the first. P&P LIVE! is now up to the world standards that are followed by other shows in Europe.”
Another company choosing to exhibit for the first time in 1995 was Beechfield. This was a momentous occasion for the brand as it introduced Beechfield to the industry and led to further exposure as, the following year, the company exhibited for the first time in Europe.
Beechfield’s stand in 1995
The children of the visitors to our stand in the early days have since joined the family business and are now themselves regular visitors to or stand, demonstrating their own entrepreneurial flair
– Roger McHugh, managing director Beechfield
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Roger McHugh, managing director, explains that 20 years ago he had the pleasure of conversing with numerous visitors, many of whom were running their own printing and embroidery businesses. “The children of the visitors to our stand in the early days have since joined the family business and are now themselves regular visitors to our stand, demonstrating their own entrepreneurial flair. “Visitors are also now more retail focused and have a bigger appetite in terms of their hunger for our fashion led products and the rich decoration opportunities available,” he says. Over the years Beechfield has helped visitors get a grasp of
different decoration techniques with the introduction of the Bag Decoration Advice Stand in 2014. Headwear advice followed in 2015. Although Beechfield is not involved in the decoration of products, it simply offers technical assistance and advice to educate visitors. This stand has been very well received during the last three years and is making a return in 2017. Roger also points out that during the 20 years Beechfield has been exhibiting that some fashion trends have come and gone, while others have remained constant big sellers. Take for example Beechfieldʼs Original 5-Panel Cap (B10) featured in the brandʼs first-ever catalogue. It is, to this day, a top selling product and a great promotional piece. Roger states: “It has been imitated but never bettered.”
Roger also notes the re-emergence of past retails trends. Result’s stand in 1995 | 26 | October 2016
Vintage styles are very much at the forefront of fashion. A spokesman for Beechfieldʼs product development team adds: “The resurgence of the timeless classics means that we are now referring to our own heritage for inspiration.” The same can be said for many brands seen at the show in 2017.
www.printwearandpromotion.co.uk
The countdown to P&P LIVE! 2017 has begun and this year the exhibition is moving into a larger hall at the NEC in Birmingham. To celebrate this move P&P editor Melanie Attlesey caught up with some of the show’s longest serving exhibitors to find out their favourite memories of the last 28 shows.
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