SPRING FAIR & MODA CONFIDENTLY PLANNING AHEAD FOR AN INSPIRATIONAL FEBRUARY SHOW

Spring Fair, the UK's most diverse, vibrant, and exciting wholesale marketplace for home, gift, sourcing and Moda as the fourth fashion destination incorporating footwear and the Jewellery & Watch Edit, confirms it will take place from 6th – 9th February 2022 in Halls 1-8 at NEC Birmingham, as planned. Registration is live and visitors can visit www.springfair.com and www.moda-uk.co.uk for the latest news, information on over 1000 exhibitors, inspiring content, and up to date Safe & Secure guidelines.

Julie Driscoll, Divisional Managing Director for Retail, Engineering and Manufacturing at Hyve Group plc says; “We are confidently planning for the show and are very much looking forward to seeing all of you there. As we always have done, we take our responsibilities around Health & Safety at our events incredibly seriously. Anyone entering into the NEC venue at Spring Fair (including those during build-up and breakdown) will need to show their valid Covid-19 Pass, or a negative result to a Lateral Flow Test taken within 48hours. In addition, aligned to Government guidelines, all attendees will wear a face covering during the show.

“Autumn Fair had an incredibly strong visitor density and buyers with real quality who had an appetite to see new products and suppliers and make buying decisions in person. Feedback from our exhibitors, old and new, was that it was their best event for many years….”

“The best show we’ve ever had at Autumn Fair, and we’ve signed up for the next two shows. We’re delighted and it’s exceeded our expectations. We are looking forward to Spring Fair.” Scream Pretty  

“Autumn Fair has the most amazing footfall, the best of all the shows. We have seen both new and existing customers and have written a lot of orders.” Spice Kitchen

“We are blown away by how busy and productive it’s been. Our first order was taken by 9.15am, we’d already covered the cost of our stand by 11am, over 30 orders done by 5pm, and over 100 serious leads to follow up on. We have never been to a show like it.” The Seed Card Company

Sarah Ward, CEO, Giftware Association, agrees that the UK retail industry should continue to trade safely at Spring Fair, saying; “The entire retail industry has learned so much from the pandemic, particularly the need and desire for in-person business and buying. Spring Fair is crucial for the future of the giftware industry, not just to source products but also to facilitate and build relationships, to forge new partnerships, and to discover and drive innovation and inspiration. I have complete confidence in Hyve Group and the Spring Fair team to continue to create brilliant and safe shows and communicate best practice to everyone involved and attending them.”

Summing up the view from retailers, Julie Tigne from Owl and the Pussycat said; “I have attended Spring Fair for the last 10 years and it was really missed in the pandemic, you can’t buy online! I’m looking forward to seeing proper products again.” While Andrew Mitchell from Mitchell Sports stressed the benefits of attending Spring Fair, “All my competitors are online now so I need unusual items for my shops and website. Spring Fair is the easiest way to do this in one go!”

Driscoll adds; “As well as our responsibility to Health & Safety, we also have a huge responsibility to the many thousands of businesses that rely on us as a key part of their buying and selling calendar. We saw a renewed energy and excitement at both Autumn Fair and Glee amongst the thousands of exhibitors and attendees. Everybody who attended the event came to do business. We also successfully launched Curated Meetings, delivering over 300, 15-minute face-to-face meetings, generating hundreds of thousands of pounds of business and an incredible return on time investment for participants.

“We have grown Curated Meetings exponentially for Spring Fair, incorporating all sectors of the show. Averaging £330k in buying power, leading retailers signed up include Denby Retail, John Lewis & Partners, Midcounties Coop Food, Paper Tiger, Yorkshire Willow, Whirligig Toys, Riley's Garden Centre, Evie&me Interiors, Staines & Brights, D Cutler International, and Four Sisters.

“What 2021 has highlighted is the importance of reliability and retailers being able to see and touch what they are buying; one thing is clear they cannot afford another year of virtual buying. Spring Fair has been a vital cog in the retail supply chain for sourcing products and reinforcing those face-to-face relationships for many years and in 2022 it is vitally important for our industry that Spring Fair opens its doors to allow retailers to restock and buy for the year ahead.”

Exhibitors are also keen to show at Spring Fair. Julian Hunt, Managing Director, Lesser & Pavey says; "We at Lesser & Pavey very much want Spring Fair to run and the unanimous feedback from our customers is that they are equally keen. The team at Spring Fair (Hyve) have a responsibility to get this done”.

Ian Taylor, Managing Director of the NEC states; “We begin 2022 with the prestigious Spring Fair firmly on our radar as an unmissable event for businesses looking to trade, showcase their products and meet new buyers. As the host venue we are ready to provide the highest levels of reassurance and customer service to ensure a great visitor experience.

“The NEC Group has hosted hundreds of events with strict COVID-19 measures in place since reopening last July, including across the festive season, with visitors coming to the NEC throughout. Our consumer insight shows 85% of our visitors feel comfortable in the venue with our measures in place, with 87% agreeing it made them feel more confident about attending events in the future. Hosting live events is what we do best. The opportunity to provide a safe environment for exhibitors at Spring Fair to reconnect with their customers is our number one priority.”

Ian Solomon, Director of Operations, Hyve Group plc adds;  “Our Safe and Secure Guidelines and Best Practice measures that we delivered at our Autumn events are more than sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the latest ‘Plan B’ recommendations. As a result, there are no new restrictions introduced at the moment as a result of the new information being received around the Omicron variant. Our decision to ensure that all people are checked for their Covid Status upon arrival at the venue is agreed to be the most effective mitigation measure available to us, and we will continue to insist that this is in place for the foreseeable future. We have huge confidence about our ability to ensure that the environment we are creating together will be both very comfortable for all and very low risk. Should the information we receive and/or any new guidance be recommended we will, of course, respond to that in the appropriate way and communicate accordingly.”

Spring Fair continually reviews and updates its Safe & Secure guidelines, available at www.springfair.com/visit/safe-secure. Further information can also be found on the show website FAQs at www.springfair.com/visit/visit-faqs.

Register to attend Spring Fair at https://www.springfair.com/visitor-registration and Moda at https://www.moda-uk.co.uk/visitor-registration