BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
The organisers of the NEC-based Cycle Show are said to be ‘pleased’ with the midlands debut, following the exhibition’s move from London’s Earl’s Court.
Visitor numbers have been revealed as 19,285 over the four days of show, including the opening trade day. Upper Street Events, the firm behind the show, also hailed their ‘biggest ever Sunday’.
The show has now been re-booked at the NEC for 2012 with dates set as September 27th through 30th.
The move to Birmingham achieved a major objective to make the show accessible to a broad new audience, with 69 per cent of visitors having never previously been. Almost 30 per cent also said they had spent more than £2,000 in the last year on cycling related products.
Commenting on the figures, Isobel Dennis, group director at Upper Street Events said: “We are delighted with the results of the 10th Cycle Show and the reception of our move to the NEC in Birmingham.
“We met our objectives for the show, including a vastly increased regional spread and a very high quality of trade and consumer visitors. The show also had its busiest Sunday ever despite the unseasonably sunny weather. The show’s success was reflected in its best ever exhibitor rebook for 2012.”
Dan Jones of Windwave, which distributes brands such as Colnago, echoed this: “The stand on Saturday was the busiest I have ever worked on at any show we have ever done.”
Regular exhibitor Grant Young, managing director of Condor Cycles added: “The Show was an overwhelming success for Condor. We have been a loyal supporter of the show for the past ten years and were delighted with the show overall, in particular with the very busy trade day where we secured three new exclusive Condor distributors to cover the Midlands, Staffordshire and York.”
BikeBiz’s deputy editor also recently shared his thoughts on the show, which can be found here.
New exhibitor, Alan Solomon from Linus Bikes commented: “The Cycle Show at the NEC provided a great platform to launch Linus Bikes in the UK.
Interested exhibitors for the 2012 show should contact Bansi Patel on 020 7288 6099, or email bansip@upperstreetevents.co.uk.
