Apr 28, 2017

London Stationery Show best ever in 2017

The seventh London Stationery Show closed its doors earlier this week after recording its highest ever visitor numbers and celebrating the successful introduction of several new features at the show.

With a great mix of buyers, dealers, stationers, gift retailers, supermarkets and department stores in attendance, the show attracted visitors from 43 countries around the world.

The show has seen consistent growth in the number and size of stands being requested by exhibitors and this year had over 160 exhibitors and 300 brands represented at the show. It also recorded the highest number of entries to its Stationery Awards, which this year topped just over 400.

“The show continues to grow and attract more support from the industry and interested buyers. We’ve had an excellent response from exhibitors wanting to book for next year, and strong interest in our new show, which will be based in Manchester,” said Tim Willoughby, managing director at Ocean Media Group, which owns the show and National Stationery Week.

This year the show introduced a LaunchPad competition to help aspiring stationery designers and companies get started in the industry.  This resulted in 12 winners being given free stands at the show.  One of them, My Pretty Circus, from Germany, has also been awarded a free stand by the organisers at the 2018 show to support their further development.

In the Stationery Awards, the big winners this year were Abrams & Chronicle which picked up three trophies, including the Judges’ Choice Award.  The judges chose Abrams & Chronicle for successfully raising the profile of its stationery offer, and a second company, Laura Stoddart for offering something fresh and new to the market. Laura Stoddart also picked up a trophy for Best Social Stationery.

Judges’ panel chairman Henri Davis said, “It is great to see companies and brands being recognised at these awards, and the number of entries steadily climbing year on year.  The time it takes to enter, and the effort of providing samples, is far outweighed by the benefit of getting your product in front of a fantastic line up of buyers and seeing your product on the New Product Display at the show!”

Click here for the full Awards results

The show also introduced a new Creative Hub which offered a range of workshops for visitors to try out during their visit, and staged two days of quick fire seminars and presentations aimed at retailers.

On Wednesday morning, online curated marketplace notonthehighstreet.com staged a well-attended mini ‘Stationery Pitch Up’.  The team was delighted with the response and left with details of ‘4 or 5’ definite Partners and having started many more conversations with interested designers and suppliers.

“We will catch up with our exhibitors and visitors to find out what the best bits of the show were for them, so that we can focus on these areas for our new Manchester Stationery Show at the end of October,” commented event manager, Hazel Fieldwick.

The next London Stationery Show will take place on Tuesday and Wednesday, 24-25 April 2018.