Our fabulous new trade stand travelled to the NEC Birmingham on 1st February in time for Spring Fair - heralding our chance to entice, impress, amaze thousands of top retailers, independent shop owners, buyers and the press. This is an all-encompassing, exhausting and utterly thrilling experience that leaves us with sore feet, jangling ears, a ‘to-do’ list a mile long, and a renewed excitement for the future of our still-small-but-growing company.
In addition to wooing retail bods, we spent time sourcing new suppliers for our own kits - collating the components for new products and gathering ideas for the future. It is also always worth a browse around the other stands, which give a flavour of what is new, the current trends and also what our competition are up to!
We’ve worked the halls of Spring Fair for the past three years, and every year we have returned with new orders and enquiries to follow up, new contacts made with retailers and suppliers - and insights into the toy and gift industry. As anyone who visits trade fairs will confirm - it’s an exhausting experience, and we long for fresh air and a countryside view after the first few days. What better way to learn about our retailers though - what is important to them, where they feel the market is heading, what they need from us - than meeting face to face? This year we’ve been delighted to hear that many retailers are turning away toys with heavy environmental footprints, and instead are searching for gifts that provide rich experiences for children - that can be reused, and that encourage a healthy connect to nature. Good news for our super range of Den Kits - and good news for the planet.
