Showcase for new products

The fair is the leading British event covering the areas of DIY, home improvement, decoration and tools. Which is a market that will have quite a lot to offer in the future as well: consumer expenditure on DIY and garden products is expected to rise by 35.5 per cent in the next five years, according to information from the London-based business consultants Verdict Research.
With their total of more than 250 exhibitors the DIY Show and Garden Expo are fast becoming a centre of attraction for visitors from both home and abroad.  Each year the foreign visitors travel to London from around 40 different countries.
In 2002 again new products will be displayed in separate areas of the DIY Show and Garden Expo where visitors can obtain a good general idea of the exhibitors’ innovativeness. Almost 90 per cent of exhibitors will be displaying new products and two thirds of them have special offers available to visitors to the fair.
The number of exhibitors in the tool category is growing from year to year. Fair director Christopher Leonard-Morgan confirms this development, “The tool sector is one of the soundest and most dynamic in today’s DIY market.”
Strong brand names will also be represented in London in the decoration category, as well as in the DIY and garden product categories. Decoration as a category has been one of the most strongly represented in the course of the show’s eight-year history. Among the firms in the decoration segment are Henkel Consumer Adhesives – with plans to raffle a Smart car during the event – as well as Plasti-Kote, Imperial Home Decor, Humbrol, English Abrasives & Chemicals and Franpin UK.
This coming year the BHHMA manufacturers’ association will again be supporting the show, though big names on the buyers’ side are also lending their influence to ensure the success of the event. These include Decco, Stax, Mica, Home Hardware, Supa Value and Fair & Square, plus Hart and the Home Decoration Retailers Association.
A first for London will be the participation at the AHMA’s USA pavilion of a group organised by the American Hardware Manufacturers Association.
This year’s event saw the registration of 4 000 visitors from 40 countries .
Garden Expo will also for the first time be offering the “HART Village” in collaboration with Hart, the buying and marketing group of independent UK garden centres. This special area is exclusively reserved for Hart suppliers.