This year’s second running of the Boating Business Exhibition (BBEx) closed on Thursday evening on a high note with visitor attendance up and more than 50 companies already booked for the 2008 show, says

‘Visitors commented on how professional the show was and how professional the exhibitors’ stands were this year,’ said BBEx show manager, Jane Wilson.

The final visitor figure was 9.3% up, giving a total of 1633, against 1494 for the first show in 2007. ‘We’re very pleased with the show,’ said Wilson. ‘A couple of companies felt the show might not be for them, but by far the majority of our exhibitors are firmly behind it.’
 

The varied seminar programme saw 50 people attending the Thursday morning Breakfast Briefing on the subject of Bricks v Clicks that saw panellists Tim Millinder of Marathon (for the suppliers), John Gardner of Piplers of Poole (for the conventional chandlers) and Karl Pentin of Safety Marine (for the Internet jockeys) handling questions from the floor on a variety of themes.

One interesting snippet to come out of the discussion was the apparent ability of one northern Europe manufacturer to offer a variety of discounts and retail prices to differing levels of trade customers. This came under close scrutiny as most felt it was illegal – some investigation required here.

A more in-depth item will appear in the March issue of BB, but an instant overview of the discussion seems to indicate the industry has really come to terms with the widely varying levels of retail prices on offer and is shrugging them off. ‘If they want to discount themselves out of business,’ said one delegate, ‘that’s up to them.’

Here are a few exhibitor comments – unexpurgated – to give you an idea of how they saw the show:

‘BBEx is a great way for us to promote all the divisions in the group. It’s a useful shop window for creating awareness,’ Steve Butcher, Salterns Marina.

‘It’s going well. BBEx is a good networking opportunity and the timing allows us to consolidate on leads created at London. It’s even better than last year,’ Tom Ager, Versadock.

‘BBEx 2006 was the first trade show we’d been to in six years. Boating Business can hold on to the ball and keep running with it to make it work,’  Dave Benoy, Blue Gee.

But with the show sold out at 200 exhibitors – five companies were actually turned away – it expanded upstairs to take in the Bourne Lounge as a third hall this year, which was seen as a mistake by some: ‘Up here is the wrong location and having the exhibition in half-term is a mistake,’ said Ian Rippington of Imray.

And that’s when I found out that half term holidays vary from county to county. And it wasn’t half term in Hampshire during BBEx…

M S Raza, Azure Wear said simply: ‘We need more visitors.’ But then Sean Carter of VBI – also a Bourne Lounge exhibitor, told us: ‘We’ve had some very interesting enquiries and have made two appointments in the local area to talk about our 24/7 fuel pump. It’s the first time we’ve exhibited in the marine market and it’s been a very positive experience.’

‘BBEx is a good place to showcase our new products to new customers,’ Craig Johnson, Navimo.

‘Disappointed. There aren’t the naval architects or buyers from boat yards and ship yards or their technical staff that were here last year,’ Peter Snare, Seafresh Desalinators.

‘BBEx has proven to be a successful show and it’s the perfect opportunity to finalise orders before the start of the season. We’ve certainly done business we wouldn’t have done if we hadn’t been here,’ Peter Dury, Quayside.

‘There seems to be fewer attendees than last year but we’ve certainly taken some good orders,’ Tim Millinder, Marathon Leisure.

‘Bournemouth is a great location. We’ve had high quality visitors but would like to see more boat yards as well as chandlers at the show. We’ll always support a good trade show; perhaps some of the other major distributors will realise what they are missing,’ Martin Cole, Marine & Industrial

BBEx Awards

And, of course, we gave out a few awards, most of them in association with the Marine Trades Association (MTA).

The BBEx/MTA Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award (sponsored by Dyer Burdett & Co) went to Neil Chapman of Boatshed

The BBEx/MTA Young Businessperson of the Year Award went to Zeb Elliott of Halyard (M&I)

The BBEx/MTA Retailer of the Year Award (sponsored by Cheers Insurance) went to Norfolk Marine of Wroxham

The BBEx innovations Showcase Award (sponsored by the Marine Skills Centre) went to C-Quip for its Super Soaker

And our final award of the Boating Business Lifetime Achievement Award went to David Coleman of Barton Marine

For further information visit: www.bbex.co.uk