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London Wine Fair 2014 cuts costs for exhibitors

Published:  11 April, 2014

London Wine Fair has been making some big changes this year including pledging £40,000 to bring in 200 major buyers for the show, with the money being flagged to help the buyers with travel and accommodation costs and a 25% reduction in the space price for exhibitors.

LWF is working to entice previous exhibitors to return to the show and bring in high calibre buyers in an effort to draw attendees and exhibitors to the show as it returns to Kensington's Olympia for 2014.

The space price reduction does impact LWF's bottom line, but leadership of the event felt it was necessary to eliminate some of the financial barriers for exhibitors who wanted to participate.

Ross Carter, the director of the London Wine Fair, has focused on reinventing LWF as a nationally British show, but as the largest importer of wines globally, the show by default has an international element.

"We are not competing with ProWein, nor should we. LWF is somewhere in between a national and international wine event. It is a trade event for the world's largest leading import market. People look to this market to see what the UK market may or may not be doing," said Carter. Fifteen percent of the attendees of the LWF are international.

The re-focus and reinvention of the fair as a more UK focused wine trade event is something that has been in the works for almost 18 months, said Carter.

In effort to "democratise" the fair, a cap on stand size, height and the elimination of banners has been put in place.  The limits were introduced in an effort to allow all exhibitors to be seen, which has not always happened in the past.  Prior to the financial crisis of 2008 several stands at the LWF were double decker, with expenses "that were not justifiable and were unattainable," said William Broadfoot, marketing director at Brintex, the event management firm behind LWF. The size limitations did get some push back from exhibitors but Carter is sure it is the right move to help redirect the show back to "its roots and it lowers costs for all exhibitors."

These two major changes, along with several other changes that the fair is implementing, have helped the return of several past exhibitors who were not present last year as well as sparked interest among new exhibitors.  More than 25 different companies are returning to the fair this year after being absent for at least a year and over 650 exhibitors will be on show at the nearly sold out event.

Facts:

What: London Wine Fair

Where: Olympia London

When: June 2-4, 2014

    2 June: 10.30-18.30

    3 June: 9.30-18.00

    4 June: 9.20-17.00

For more information, click here and look our for the LWF preview in the next edition of Harpers.

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