The buyers who come to this show are pressed for time – but they realise that attendance puts them at the forefront of the latest trends for a whole 12 months.

In just a few hours you’ll get a real sense of which way the market is moving, what’s likely to sell best in 2019, and grab the best ideas while they’re still fresh. It’s also a great opportunity to get the stock you need for Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Easter, the Summer season, and beyond.

We do two things at the show. We stay in touch with companies we already deal with and take the opportunity to look at their new products and we also have a look at new products from new suppliers. The main benefit is that the show is relatively local for us and also a very manageable size. It’s really good for finding smaller local producers/suppliers.”

Meeting your customers’ needs

Customers want what’s fresh and unusual – so you need to snap up the latest ideas, styles and innovations before they lose their novelty. However, getting all your information from reps, or attempting to follow what’s new by browsing the internet, leaves you with only part of the picture.

Attending the show gives you the vital advantage of physically picking things up, seeing how they are made, evaluating the packaging, and really gauging the quality – much better than taking someone else’s word for it or looking at small photographs on the web.

There’s also no substitute for meeting people face to face – you’ll almost certainly get better terms and superior service if you’ve taken the time to build a proper relationship with them.

Finally, the experience, while extremely productive, is also an enjoyably sociable one.