Pictured above: Charles Crowder of Charlie Crow (right)
meets New Zealand buyer Edward Robinson at UKTI's Meet the Buyer
event at the Spring Fair
A Stoke-on-Trent firm is hoping to win new business in four
overseas markets, thanks to a Meet the Buyer event organised by UK
Trade & Investment (UKTI) at the NEC's Spring Fair
International.
Charlie Crow Costumes was one of 42 UK firms taking advantage of
an opportunity to meet buyers from across the globe in a series of
20-minute 'speed networking' sessions run by UKTI's International
Trade Promotion Centre (ITPC) team, based at the NEC, at the UK's
largest retail show.
A total of 39 giftware and homeware buyers from Australia,
Belgium, Brazil, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand,
Norway, Russia, and the USA attended the event.
UKTI commercial officers from the British Embassies in many of
these countries and in Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland and
Turkey were also on hand to give expert advice to the UK
companies.
Charlie Crow, of St Modwen Trade Park, Fenton Industrial Estate,
designs and manufactures fancy dress costumes for children and
adults.
Sales manager Charles Crowder met buyers from Australia,
Finland, the Netherlands and New Zealand during the day.
He said: "We usually exhibit at the Spring Fair but it's the
first time we've joined the Meet the Buyer event.
"We already export to Scandinavia and this event is a great
opportunity for us to see if we can gain more international
business.
"It's definitely been a positive day with some good feedback
from the buyers."
Buyer Paul Bloch, of concept store Pro-Idee, based in Aachen,
Germany, said: "I was very impressed by the quality of the products
that I've seen at this event. The companies have been very well
chosen by UKTI and could all potentially be of interest to
us."
Victoria Prosser, event and marketing co-ordinator at the ITPC,
said: "This is the second time we have held a Meet the Buyer event
in a 'speed networking' format and the event outputs have increased
- this year we managed 263 meetings with 42 UK companies.
"The responses from both UK and international delegates have
been very positive as the meetings provided a 20-minute
introduction to UK products in a business environment - something
which can be difficult to obtain on a busy exhibition stand.
"Also, the international delegates appreciate the event
happening on the first day of their visit so they can then visit
the UK companies they met for follow-up meetings and a chance to
see the full range of products on offer."
With more than 3,000 exhibitors and 300,000 new product
launches, Spring Fair International is the largest and most
comprehensive retail trade show in the UK.
It covers 12 key buying sectors: gift and home, design-led
gifts, volume gift and home, kitchen, dining, greetings and
stationery, art and framing, toys, gadgets and party, festive,
floral and fireworks, outdoor living, well-being, fashion jewellery
and accessories and The Jewellery Show.