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The acquisation of Bike by Haymarket Exhibitions has been expected for some months and now the final legal loopholes have been closed and the deal was inked late last week.
Under an exclusive licence agreement, MBUK will continue to promote the event and will be the show’s anchor exhibitor too. Future’s other cycling magazines – What Mountain Bike and Cycling Plus – will also actively participate in Bike 2002.
35 427 visitors attended the Bike 2001 show last April. But there were problems – see http://www.bikebiz.co.uk/…/article.php?id=1360
Haymarket Exhibitions is the show arm of the publishing group founded on the 1960s by former government minister Michael ‘Tarzan’ Heseltine, and where he made his fortune. The Haymarket Group is one of the largest privately-owned publishing companies in Britain, responsible for magazines such as Stuff, which will no doubt also plug the Bike Show.
Haymarket Exhibitions stages its own shows as well as acting in partnership with magazines with such shows as Autosport International, BBC Gardeners’ World Live; Clotheshow and BBC Good Food Show. It also recently organised Board-X, King of Street and the Urban Games, shows which – like Bike 2001 – attract young lads.
The company organises 14 exhibitions in the UK attracting more than 1 million visitors annually, more than any other UK rival.
The Bike Show 2002 will run at the NEC from Saturday March 23rd to Monday March 25th.
Patrick Joscelyne, Future’s show sales manager, is to transfer to Haymarket and the show mananger will be Haymarket’s Louise Houston, who was worked on Clotheshow, BBC Gardeners’ World Live, and Board-X.
She told bikebiz.co.uk:
"I am really pleased to be involved in the [bike] industry and [am] looking forward to helping create the best event yet for 2002."
Kris Hollund, publisher of all three of Future’s cycle titles, told bikebiz.co.uk the deal with Haymarket meant the Bike show could be improved:
"Haymarket has a huge amount of experience to bring to the table with the Bike Show, especially most of the operational aspects that could be so much better.
"First thing is to obtain larger halls and to avoid the problems that we had through the demand running away with us. Essentially our true experience lies in making magazines, not running shows.
"Future is still massively involved with the show, as we have licensed our magazine title to it and will be driving the editorial content as well as the core promotional activity.
"We changed a lot of the features to make the show more exciting last year and
successfully we feel, they just need to be developed and made bigger so more people have an easier time of seeing everything.
"In order for the show to improve, get bigger and be all encompassing, beneficial to all involved in the bike industry, including us, we needed to get expert help. That’s where Haymarket come in, they are also experienced at working with magazine brands and encouraging national press to get involved, increasing visitor figures of all ages and
interests."
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