Asia Expo, London concluded with buyers’ renewed interest

Spurred by a worldwide economic recovery, the 2005 edition of the Asia Expo London - the fifth event since its inaugural show in 2001 - had again drawn together a large buyer attendance from Europe and other continents looking for dazzling arrays of Asia’s best merchandises offered by 687 exhibitors all coming from Asia.

Since its debut years ago, Kenfair International’s Asia Expo, London has charmed the European market by bringing the best of Asian toys, gifts and premiums to London - the premier financial and commercial hub in Europe. Mr. Herbert Ip, Chairman of Kenfair International remarked, “Asia Expo had set up a win-win platform by satisfying the soaring European demand for top-quality yet competitively-priced Asian-made products, while providing Asian manufacturers with the most direct venue to market their products in Europe.”

Most importantly, the strategic scheduling of Asia Expo in February was also beneficial to attracting large crowd of trade buyers to the exhibition.

The 2005 edition, with a consolidated show period into 3 days for efficient timing and focused sourcing, continued to lure impressive attendance, attracting altogether almost 10,000 buyers for the show. Serious buyers were here to source the merchandise to fill their shelves from 687 Asian manufacturers hosting 718 booths. Participating companies had brought together a wide product portfolio: advertising & promotional premiums, household products, artificial flowers, kitchenware, arts & crafts, leather goods, baby products, lighting, bags, paper products, bathroom/bedroom accessories, photo frame, ceramics & porcelain, stationery, festival decorations, silverware, consumer electronics, toys & games, costume jewellery & fashion accessories, umbrellas, crystal & glassware, caps, wickerwork, home textiles, etc.

With a general rebound in global economy, Asia Expo 2005 came at the right moment to recapture the new consumption enthusiasm of the consumer population in this part of the world. Lining up the Asia’s manufacturers under one roof and contributed further to the build-up of a critical impact to draw in visitors and exhibitors.

Visitors from as many as 80 countries showed up for the London show, with over 52% came from the U.K. Other than the British origin, buyers also came from all corners of western and central Europe, and as far as Malta and Greece in the Mediterranean region. Moreover, new buyers from the former Soviet Bloc provided a new addition to the visitors’ composition.

Welcoming the international buyers were exhibitors from 13 Asian countries and regions. Hong Kong exhibitors took up the largest contingent in 302 booths. Taiwan came second with 206 exhibitors. China followed with 124 booths. The show alos had exhibitors coming from many other Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, Korea, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

During the 3-day event, a large number of visitors expressed high satisfaction with the content and the atmosphere of the exhibition. Mr. Gerd Harnish, president of A-Z Stores and Shops from Germany, said, “ We are a chain store operation, and we have been importing quite a lot of toys, gifts, watches and clocks and other items. I have been visiting this show every year to check for new supplies from China and other Asian suppliers. I would like to rate the exhibitors of the show as excellent. The organizer Kenfair has provided great services here for buyers. I will for sure visit this exhibition again next year.”

Mr. Michael Le Bras, purchase manager for Bridge Communication of Switzerland, also remarked similar delights, “We are a wholesaler for gifts, stationery and fashion accessories. We visited this show with an aim to find new products from China, Hong Kong and India. We were happy to meet with many good quality exhibitors and be able to get some of our target products. We were highly impressed by the good organization of the show. We'll most likely visit this expo again next year and expect to see even more exhibitors.”

Other than major chains and importers, specialty stores also found this London show a great place to source the right items. Mr. Rinaldo Frattini, sales manager of Corna & Fratus S.R.L., a facial accessories importer from Italy, commented, “Even though we are an importer with specialized interest in facial accessories and related items, we found this exhibition very good in terms of organization, exhibitors’ quality and product diversity. We had been able to source some good items at the show, and I think I will come back next year.”

Aside from new comers, regular visitors of Asia Expo London still found the show a great appeal to their business. Mr. Xell Gispert of GRP International of Spain, said, “This is my second time to visit this London show after I first came here two years ago. I appreciate that we have this time even more stationery exhibitors, which suit my very special need for pens.”

Exhibitors gave credits to the 2005 show, too. “Compared with the past 2 years, we saw an increasing percentage of serious buyers with genuine potential. The show just gets better and better,” commented Miss Ma of Jinhua Artex Home Textile Co., Ltd. from China, the third-time exhibitor.

Another exhibitor, Mr. Leung of Yangszhou Shengyin Crystal Gifts Ltd, happily said, “We’re so delighted to see many clients we met at last year’s expo. Also, we got a number of new prospects this time. We have received very good on-site orders worth over US$1million, with some others under negotiation. The organizer is very professional and providing excellent services.”

Mr. Iftikhar Soofi, Director of Kabir Sports (PVT) Ltd. from Pakistan, remarked, “I have been exhibiting at this London show for a couple of years. We see it as an important promotional channel for us in Europe. Everything here is just so good and I did make good results here year after year. Surely, I will be here next year.”

First-time exhibitor, Mr. Khan Abdul Waheed of Wintech Enterprises from Hong Kong expressed highly positive comment, “We are a manufacturer of toys. The results are much better than expected. We met quite a number of buyers with genuine interest in our products. We are glad to confirm a few orders on the spot. Definitely, I will join this expo again next year.”

The next edition of Asia Expo London will be held again at the Grand Hall of Olympia, London from 2-4 February, 2006.